Originally Posted by
stanscan
I would like to know what happened to this run of 861 on 8/25 as well. After flying south for 2.5 hours they turned around just north of Hispanola. Flight is now showing delayed, leaving at 1:01 PM today Sunday 8/26. TS Isaac was in that location, but that is an known event that would have been planned for.
So...I just got a word from a friend who happened to be on the flight! She said that about 2.5 hrs into the flight, the captain announced there was a problem with communication equipment. They could still talk to US-based ATC, but it was going to be an issue in South America, so they had to turn back landing around 4am. Finally left about 1:30pm today after a ground delay at IAD caused by a thunderstorm. United offered hotels to passengers, but some decided to hang out in the terminal and wait for LH lounge to open instead of dealing with shuttles and TSA.