Originally Posted by
Globaliser
I was curious enough to have a look this morning.
BA2037 LGW-MCO on 1 November was operated by G-VIIR. The aircraft should have operated BA2036 MCO-LGW on 1 November, but that flight was delayed (see above).
The aircraft left MCO just before 0100 on 3 November as BA9601. It got to about Charleston, made a U-turn, and then another one when it was back near Savannah, before continuing northbound and diverting to JFK. EF says "aircraft forced to return" and also seems to say for this flight that the diversion to JFK was for "aircraft defects". I can't tell whether the aircraft had paying passengers on board.
The aircraft had been planned to operate BA2273 LGW-JFK today, but that has been cancelled "tech". We will have to see whether the aircraft is seriously sick, or whether it can be repaired in time so that the aircraft can pick up the schedule again by operating tonight's BA2272 JFK-LGW on time.
I suppose that one possible benefit of the diversion to JFK, if there are passengers on board, is that it could be relatively easy to transfer them to other aircraft to get back to London.
Possibly a bit of a nightmare, though, for any people who had planned to be back in London on the morning of 2 November and might not now get back until after an overnight flight tonight.
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Globaliser - Thanks for this, and yes having had messages this morning from the family members they were stuck in New York and there were no hotels due to the Marathon. Seems they got the standard piece of paper to say up to £200 on hotel, 2 calls etc. The main issue is one family member has run out of medication, meaning any further delay may result in admission to hospital - not ideal.
In anycase, I phoned BA holidays on their behalf this morning and got through to a very helpful person, with the plan to conference them in if needed. They advised they have at least one rescue flight that should have left LON for JFK at 11 but stated they would look into all options. They were able to get them rebooked on BA184 from EWR however looking at the seatmap on BA184 seems like there is no room for three in WTP (but there is in other classes).
I'll have to drive them to Gatwick to get their car in the morning. Fingers crossed.