Originally Posted by
nancypants
Because i’m on a long car ride and bored, here’s the great circle route (red) overlaid with areas greater than 60 minutes from a diversion airfield (dark blue)
i wonder if there might be some element of winds or similar making the route more northerly also?
Interesting! So they essentially used a route which put the plane in close touch to an airfield in case it had to land.
Probably just a precautionary measure, they wouldn’t be allowed to fly a plane in this day and age if there was genuine threat to human life. Love to find out what the issue was / reasoning behind re-routing though.