jakatz

From the Trib
Trans-Atlantic flight diverted to airport in Maine

Associated Press
Published August 25, 2006, 12:17 PM CDT


BANGOR, Maine -- A trans-Atlantic flight from Manchester, England, en route to Chicago was diverted to the Bangor International Airport on Friday, officials said.

American Airlines Flight 55, a Boeing 767, was diverted for security reasons, said Arlene Murray, New England regional spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, who declined to elaborate.


FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz declined to discuss the nature of the problem.

"We're responding to determine the cause of the diversion. It's going to take a number of hours for passengers to be interviewed," Marcinkiewicz said from Boston.

An American Airlines spokesman in Dallas said the flight, which was carrying 167 passengers and 12 crew members, was forced to land in Maine at the request of the Transportation Security Administration because of an unspecified "security concern."

"The TSA had a security concern about the flight and the concern has been addressed," said airline spokesman John Hotard. He added that the flight will continue to Chicago once a new crew is in place, as the delay would have forced the current crew to work beyond their required hours.

Hotard declined to say whether any passengers were removed from the flight.

The Bangor airport is a popular place for international flights to touch down early because of mechanical problems, unruly passengers or security threats.

Bangor is the first large U.S. airport for incoming European flights, and it's the last U.S. airport for outgoing flights, providing a safety net for aircraft with uncluttered skies and one of the longest runways on the East Coast.





Copyright © 2006, The Associated Press

EXPflyer1

Thanks for the heads-up.

BTW, there is a thread in Travel Safety & Security on this.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=594534

1K-SFO

I'm not quite sure why the "confused" emoticon -- isn't this a valid topic for the AA board?

aa4ever

Out of curiosity (not make fun of it or anything), but how many planes have been diverted since the 8/10 scare?

Off hand, it seems like:

NWA from AMS-India.
AI from US-DUB (today, I think)
AA from MAN-ORD.

Seems like I might be missing a couple.

JoeyS5775

US Airways from PHX-CLT today

http://www.wtkr.com/Global/story.asp...9&nav=ZolHbyvj

FWAAA

Here's a much longer list from the Travel Safety/Security forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...2&postcount=17

Dub

FYI

Aer Lingus is EI. Air India is AI

JAGMAP

BANGOR, Maine (AP)--An American Airlines flight from England to Chicago that was forced to land in Maine Friday for security reasons, is preparing to head to the Midwest, according to an airline spokesman.

"Nothing is wrong. We will put a new crew on it, and the flight will continue to Chicago," American spokesman John Hotard said. "The TSA had a security concern about the flight, and the concern has been addressed."

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Murray said American Airlines Flight 55 out of Manchester, England, was diverted to Bangor for security reasons but would not elaborate. FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz also declined to discuss the nature of the problem.

"We're responding to determine the cause of the diversion. It's going to take a number of hours for passengers to be interviewed," Marcinkiewicz said.

The Boeing 767 carrying 167 passengers and 12 crew members was diverted at the request of the Transportation Security Administration, American spokesman Hotard said.

observer

AA.Com is showing a 8 pm departure for ORD from Bangor. Presumably the original crew of 55 is illegal and a reserve crew has been drafted from BOS. Does anyone know whether there is an FA base in BOS, with FAs available? Ditto a 767 cockpit base? They would need a lot of FAs, I imagine.

JAGMAP

Good question, Observer, I doubt AA has a 763 pilot base in BOS - they only have one seasonal 763 flight a day to CDG and not sure if it would warrant one. I'm sure the F/A crew comes from BOS though since AE has nonstops from there. Who knows...maybe they have a few 763 pilot reservists in BOS just in case something like this were to happen.

EXPflyer1

Sorry, my "confused" was in regard to yet another diverted flight. It wasn't intended as a comment about the post itself in any way.

AA2070

Don't the 757 and 767 share the same type qualification?

aa4ever

Whoops! I knew that But thanks for correcting it.

Also, thanks for posting the list of diverted/delayed flights. That is really quite a few.

hillrider

AA is flying a 757 in from BOS (AA 9665) and is scheduled to land according to the FAA at 19:46 local; it will continue as flight 55 out of BGR scheduled for 20:40 departure. I am sure that they would have preferred to fly that 763 out of there (with a fresh crew), but there's a reason preventing them to do so ("security", maybe for real). Hopefully the pax were able to do immigration and customs in BGR--but probably not for their checked baggage. I'm sure things must be a bit cahotic as AA doesn't have operations there (only Eagle, with 5 daily flights).

This is an expensive operation to AA. Kudos for flying in a new bird to get those pax out of BGR.

Incidentally, it appears that at one time the FAA had the flight redirected to YYR, or Goose Bay, NF. Now that would have been a bad place to stop...I can see AA pleading to let the flight go a bit further (BGR is pretty much the first airport with a long runway you hit coming in from the North Atlantic)

hillrider

Update: 167 pax onboard (will fit in a 757) minus 1 (handcuffed), baggage was retrieved. Source http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=139332