Hi all
My name is Joe Gilroy and I was one of the four pilots on the SIN ATL flight you are discussing. Here are the details:
The aircraft 3351 an A320-200 was in Singapore receiving a new interior with lie flat seats, a new IFE system and a new underfloor crew rest facility that replaces two separate facilities. The four of us were sent to Singapore to complete test flights to re certify many important systems mostly associated with smoke detection in the cargo area. These flights took place over two days and took 16 hours to complete.
Once we were done it became a waiting game for the FAA certification paperwork to be completed. The airplane cannot be flown with any payload until this step is complete. It was estimated that the wait would be over two weeks.
The decision was then made to fly the aircraft back to Atlanta under an "Experimental" certificate to wait out the certification. Planning for the flight took a day or two to sort out overflight permits and other issues related to our non-certified status. This also explains why we did not take the shortest route but rather the route that got us into us airspace as rapidly as possible. In the event of a diversion it would be far less complicated to land in the US as opposed to another country.
The flight home was uneventful but very long as you can imagine. We split the flying up into shifts with two of us always in the flight deck and two resting. We had plenty of food and fortunately the new IFE worked perfectly. I think I watched 3 movies while resting!
When we landed we still had almost 3 hours of fuel remaining. The A330 is an amazing aircraft and we think these new interiors will be a real hit with our passengers.
Hope this gave you the information you were looking for and gives you an idea of the behind the scenes work required to keep our fleet in top shape.
If you have questions please feel free to email me at
[email protected]
Joe