mjcewl1284

UA881 ORD-NRT 1/7 after pushback we sat on the taxiway for about 1 1/2-2 hrs. Then the first officer came on the PA and said something about how we needed additional weight information for the plane and then as he was making his speech, said that they received it. Then we proceeded to the runway for takeoff.

Checked my United app while in NRT, looks like the actual reason for delay was due to weather. Oh the explanations crew will come up with for delays

14940674

There is no reason why they cannot both be correct. The flight was delayed initially by weather. Once the weather had cleared, the crew needed updated weight and balance figures for takeoff performance. Once those were received, your flight was able to takeoff.

eabandit

I was on UA838 on Jan 9th 2014, from BKK->NRT->SFO. The NRT->SFO flight was canceled halfway through due to a medical emergency. Here's what happened:

- About 2 hours into the flight, an FA made two announcements asking if there was anyone on board with medical training who could assist.
- Shortly after the 2nd announcement, the pilot said we might have to return to Japan.
- I was riding in BusinessFirst, and I noticed our plane turn around on the flight map. The compass on my Android phone confirmed we were traveling west again.
- Pilot announced we had to return to Japan.
- Pilot had to dump fuel before landing. The return flight was pretty bumpy and had -100mph headwinds. Though it began lightly snowing in Narita, the landing was very smooth. My hat is off to the crew of this flight.
- I purchased the satellite-powered WiFi and had a fantastic, fast connection the whole flight.
- United put us up in Hotel Nikko Narita near the airport. This hotel is extremely, extremely nice and we were given two meal vouchers for the fantastic buffet restaurant.
- My flight was rescheduled to a flight named UA1755, departing on the 10th from Narita at 4:45pm (delayed to 5pm now).
- Channel 9 ATC was not available on this flight. (When selected with the entertainment system, pop music was playing.)

Some scary observations:
- As I was sitting in the first row next to the cabin upstairs, I noticed two FAs frantically enter the cabin to retrieve a medkit from the pilots. Both FAs had blue rubber gloves on and one was extremely flustered.
- The announcements over the PA said we had a seriously ill passenger aboard. The incident occurred downstairs so I was unable to know what was happening.
- This might be complete misinformation but I overheard in the airport, after all passengers had passed through NRT immigration, that someone observed a lot of blood.
- All passengers had to deplane before anything was going to happen with the seriously ill passenger. I was unable to see what was happening with the passenger the whole time. When I was deplaning, I passed a bathroom downstairs that was locked. Taped to the door was a napkin that said "Bio-Hazard" – quite shocking.
- An emergency vehicle came to the side of the plane opposite to the jetway when we parked the airplane back at the same gate from which we departed in NRT. Two stretchers were prepared on the emergency vehicle (which was connected to the plane through a door on its right side, jetway on the left side), though

Questions:

(1) Is there any way we can find out what happened to the passenger? Since we all had to deplane before they would move the passenger, my guess is something quite bad happened.

(2) Why isn't any of the flight tracking data available on sites like FlightRadar/FlightAware?

Again, hat's off to the crew for dealing with this, and thanks to United Japan for being accommodating and putting us up in a nice place.

Photos from the incident:

Flight map showing the plane returning to Japan:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-A..._200512900.jpg

Emergency vehicle approaching the plane:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-e..._223053644.jpg

Statement handed to us after we deplaned and made it through the jetway in NRT:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-h..._233609530.jpg

mjcewl1284

You're correct. I've just never heard of the weight figures reason before for a delay, even though I travel quite a bit. It didn't register at first but it does now. Thanks for the explanation.

mjcewl1284

I can't speak for UA but I was on DL 275 DTW-NRT this past April or May when we were diverted to YEG due to a situation with a passenger needing emergency personnel. We were in YEG for ~4 hrs then made the rest of the trip to NRT. My final dest was NRT and wasn't sure of what happened with the people onwards to TPE but everyone else missed their connections in NRT.

There were no announcements made about the passenger who required the medical assistance on my flight but overhearing some other people seated around the very sick passenger, he had passed out on the aisle and could not be resuscitated (I'm sure I'm jumbling some medical terms, sorry about that), which is pretty serious imo. I would say if your flight had to turn back to NRT, it was very serious. I would say UA would not give out any information what happened to the passenger.

In my particular diversion, the information was listed on FlightAware.

eabandit

FYI. Unfortunately I have found out that the ill passenger on canceled UA838 passed away, according to a customer service rep who was issuing tickets for the rescheduled flight the next day at Narita.

I still don't know exactly what happened, and as I was in the upper cabin I am curious to learn more details about the passenger's circumstances.

I don't believe UAL would disclose any information (nor should they), but if there are any third-party resources for learning more about these incidents or other first-party accounts, I would be interested to find them.

arf04

Can anyone look up why UA 5229 (ORD-YQR) was cancelled tonight? I put off renewing my KVS subscription where I would normally look that up.

I know a small plane went off the runway at YQR tonight but it seems that only 5229 and the DEN flight were cancelled and the other was being used temporarily. I think they're calling it a weather cancelation. It is what it is, but I'm still curious. I'm enjoying the view of the Target in Rosemont... LOL

mduell

Filler so it doesn't make it lower case.

arf04

Thanks!

kirkwoodj

UA839 LAX-SYD canceled last night (11JAN). Guessing Mx on the old 744, any other info?

cfischer

UA126 cancelled last night because of mechanical. Returned to gate and then 2 hour later past midnight was finally cancelled.
Got a $500 voucher + hotel etc.

cesco.g

Above flight did not take off at all. The incoming flight UA 903 SFO-FRA on 1/10 was operating. Anybody know what happened, and where the plane is?

JOSECONLSCREW28

0902/11jan
n fra/lx maintenance
n sfo/lx maintenance
d crc//sfo possible delays due to rain
d hdq/fra sfo prot under gg cnl ntd

sked fra orig 1215p gtd z23 ship 8416
sfo 245p term gta intl

goalie

I was on 1658 IAD-SFO at 10pm on 1/11 and when I checked my flight at 06:00 for a possible bump , it was wide open but when I got to the gate at around 9pm, it was a mad house where a pax told me that 902 was canceled due to mx. United re-routed as many as they could on LH to IAD and dumped all the misconx to SFO to my flight as stby's

sincx

Interesting set of circumstances. From what we know:

- Passenger, who at least appeared to be healthy enough to travel, suddenly passing away during the flight
- Hemorrhaging/lots of blood
- No quarantine of other passengers, which seems to rule out infectious disease

Some sort of traumatic injury on the plane? Otherwise it's hard to imagine what sort of sudden illness would 1. kill someone within 2 hours and 2. leave blood everywhere without 3. leading to a quarantine of the entire plane.

BTW, I was on UA838 on Jan. 8, also upstairs, so this is kind of scary.