LGACIC

Yes, mx. We turned around near Hawaii due to faulty fuel indicators. Now in very slow rebooking line. Customer service has been excellent though.

They created an entirely new flight so you shouldn't be impacted.

UNITED863

I feel fortunate with only having a 2 hour departure delay on my recent SYD trip. SFO departures seem to get hit less as they have "spare" 747s sitting over at the hangar, which is the only reason why my SFO-SYD flight didn't cancel on 11/28. This route is just amazing to monitor with the frequency of delays/cancellations.

iker

Why did this flight return to LAX some 9 hours after takeoff? Wouldn't it have been easier to have returned to Honolulu?

LordTentacle

Posed in the other thread was that it went mx for fuel quantity indicators going wrong
HNL afaik would not have spare 747 crew or UA 747 Mait staff or 747 parts
Lax/sfo do.... So back to airport of origin

ozflier

I am a little confused at the reasoning behind return to the west coast vs the closer airport at HNL.

If the issue was one of faulty fuel indicators, then you have to assume that there was concern re the ability to accurately to determine the quantum of fuel remaining in the tanks - eg their absence or faults would place the a/c at risk if there was some abnormal fuel burning situation or a leak ( or anything else I can think up) ie the extra use / loss would not be detected.

So if the pilots were faced with unreliable fuel indications, and my interpretation above is correct, then I would have thought that landing at the nearest appropriate port would be the thing to do not fly on to somewhere that was operationally more appropriate.

Maybe I am missing something.

LordTentacle

It may have just been on 1 or 2 tanks
And if the indicators were showing empty you have to assume that that tank is empty and leaked out

This means you can't make it all the way to Syd safely but still means you can fly back with plenty of reserve fuel

I trust the 747 crews who are the most experienced at united to only do what is safe
And they would trust operations who would have said that it was going to get the plane fixed quicker to fly it back to lax then to HNL
Also from a rebooking option
There are many many many more flights ex lax over ex HNL to Syd

flyinbob

So 2 747s left LAX last night for SYD. 839 and 1748 (apparently this happens so often the replacement flight has its own flight number now!). So they will have 3 747s in SYD to bring back passengers, or break down. Place your bets!

docbert

Replacement flights always have to have a different flight number - not only so that passengers know which flight they are on, but also so that ATC can tell them apart.

UA1748 is NOT assigned to LAX-SYD, it's a floating flight number that is used for rescheduled/positioning/etc flights. eg, it last flew JFK-SFO, and before that OGG-LAX. Recent delayed flights between Australia and the US have used other numbers in this range, such as 1750, 1752 and 1753.

gwilli1

They might as well allocate a permanent replacement flight number to SYD as it happens so often :-)

Aspen

I do love a report from a flying aeroplane

IADDCA

So if you have a replacement flight and a regularly scheduled flight leaving in the same evening, which is the better one to be on? I was in LA and a flight was cancelled on a Monday night because of mechanical issues. On Tuesday, it seemed like a lot of people on the Monday flight were trying to get on the Tuesday evening flight 839 without realizing that 1748 was going to get them there.

Does that happen where the Tuesday 839 ends up being full with many empty seats on the 1748? I wasn't certain since I was sitting in the upper deck.

Ocn Vw 1K

As it's time for the 2014 thread, which is now found here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ad-2014-a.html

This thread is closed. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator.