Originally Posted by
TurningLeft
No explanation given for last night’s delay on BA59 to Cape Town. Passengers boarded shortly after 22:00, and then at 00:30 were asked to deplane as it was after the LHR curfew. On return back into the terminal this afternoon an agent on security said “was it the Cape Town flight last night? That’s always being delayed like that”. Fingers crossed taking off later this afternoon.
Last night’s aircraft was G-YMMP and arrived on stand late from the maintenance base. Not entirely sure what happened subsequently but there is a note saying the flight was night stopped due to HAL refusal to extend the night jet ban. The aircraft was subsequently deallocated at 0326 am this morning and replaced with G-YMMU which is operating the service today. MMP was towed to a remote stand and is operating a service to BOM as I type. Looks like an own goal due to the late tow and subsequent delays in getting resources to the aircraft to prepare it for service, no doubt due to the cargo tunnel restrictions and control post closures that are happening concurrently.