Malaysia Airlines is experiencing a concerning amount of technical faults after three serious incidents in the past year, leading aviation experts say.

Last week, Malaysia Airlines flight MH001, an Airbus A350 from London’s Heathrow Airport to Kuala Lumpur, was forced to turn back more than an hour after take-off due to technical problems.

In July, flight MH134, a Kuala Lumpur-bound Airbus A330 had to return to Brisbane after four plastic covers placed on vital gauges were mistakenly left in place.

And in January, MH122 (also an Airbus A330) from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur was forced to make an emergency landing in Alice Springs after a technical fault reportedly shut down the engine.

The fault shook the plane violently, with passengers taking to social media saying they were terrified after the plane’s crew told them they were “preparing to crash”. 

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is conducting an investigation into the MH134 and MH122 incidents.

MH 001/13 September landed safely back in London at 11.17 pm due to a technical issue. The aircraft is being inspected for rectification. Safety and the wellbeing of our customers are our top most priorities at this time. More updates to follow.

— Malaysia Airlines (@MAS) September 13, 2018

Monash University Professor Greg Bamber, who has researched airline performance in Australia and overseas for more than 15 years, said it was extremely concerning that three technical faults had occurred within nine months.

“There seems to be a culture and training issue within this particular airline, which has suffered two of the most horrendous incidents of recent aviation history,” Professor Bamber told The New Daily.

“The airline has been through three different chief executive officers since the time of MH370 and MH17 disaster, so there’s clearly an issue with staff engagement.”

In July, families of MH370 passengers were briefed by Malaysian transport authorities in Kuala Lumpur, with the final report failing to reach any conclusions.

Professor Bamber said the three recent faults were avoidable.

“Plastic covers on gauges are routinely put on because insects such as wasps nest in these devices, which can cause them to be defective,” he said.

“The standard operating procedure is that the captain has the responsibility to walk around the plane to ensure the covers have been removed before take-off.

“The recent incident in London appears to have been caused by a door not being closed properly. It should have been picked up during the safety check before take-off.”

The covers melted and blocked the pitot tubes that are used to calculate air speed and altitude for the cockpit crew. Photo: ABC

Airline Intelligence & Research managing director and former Qantas chief economist Dr Tony Webber said the issues were above average for the airline’s fleet size.

“The fact that Malaysia Airlines has a smaller fleet unit of 103 aircraft and experienced three issues in the past nine months, means that this is above the average level of technical faults,” Dr Webber told The New Daily.

“They’re either being more cautious, therefore landing planes, given their past history with MH370 and MH17, or there’s other underlying issues going on.

“These issues give consumers less confidence with the airline and would make them more hesitant to choose them over their competitive peers, such as Qantas and Singapore Airlines.”

[UPDATE] Malaysia Airlines regrets the distress experienced by passengers of MH122 on 18 January 2018 following the diversion of the aircraft to Alice Springs Airport. For more info: https://t.co/jwiHwpReI4

— Malaysia Airlines (@MAS) January 19, 2018

Colin Weir, chief executive at Flight Safety, which audits and inspects aircraft in Australia and overseas, told The New Daily the airline would be “working desperately” to fix the problems.

“Knowing Malaysia Airlines, they put a determined effort into fixing issues. And if they’ve had three in a row, they would be working desperately to get it sorted it out.”

But Perth-based aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas said technical faults occurred frequently with other airlines. 

“Most airlines experience technical faults which are very minor in nature. But because the priority is on safety, they have to divert and turn back,” Mr Thomas said.

“The beauty of it all is that there is so much redundancy in aircraft today such as back-up systems, whereas 50 years ago they didn’t have this.”

Malaysia Airlines did not respond by deadline for comment.