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After the initial mistake, the flight crew missed “a number of opportunities” to notice and fix the problem, including several error prompts in the cockpit, the report said. At one point, the “large data entry error” caused the navigation system to warn the crew of a non-existent obstacle in its path.

“TERRAIN. TERRAIN,” the alert read. Since it was daytime, with no clouds obscuring the view from the cockpit, the captain could see that nothing was actually in his path, so he continued with takeoff.

After takeoff, air traffic control noticed something was afoot when the Airbus started to unexpectedly turn left into the flight path of the adjacent runway. With help from air traffic control, the pilots realized something was wrong with the onboard navigation. But their attempts to fix the problem only made matters worse, resulting in the autopilot shutting down, the report said.

By the time they decided to stop the flight, weather in Sydney had deteriorated so the aircraft was diverted to Melbourne, roughly 700 kilometres away. They landed two hours after takeoff and waited in Melbourne for another three before setting out on an “uneventful” flight to Kuala Lumpur.

In response to the report, AirAsia X has upgraded the flight management systems on all its aircraft, distributed a training bulletin and briefed its pilots on the findings of an internal investigation, the airline said in a statement Wednesday.

“AirAsia X would like to stress that we have in place robust management systems to monitor and prevent similar incidents from reoccurring,” the statement read. “The safety of all guests and crew are our utmost priority at all times.”