KARFA

No reason to thing the issue was not dealt with overnight.

simons1

Indeed, in which case it presumably can't have been a major issue.

There have been so many stories doing the rounds about this one, BA Source is normally quite reliable.

Roger

When BA left us in SNN when BA1 went tech, we knew pretty quickly. The Swissport rep had a lot on his plate and we found out on the web, but our claim was quickly and efficiently dealt with. Oh, and great overnight accommodation and sustinence.

OK, a 318 is easier to handle than a 777, but we managed.

KARFA

Who said it was major issue? And why can't a major issue be dealt with overnight?

avcritic

Lets go thru the excuses one by one.

Russia
BA7 is a daily flight, they should be aware of complications with Russian overflight. Not a valid reason. Not filing, filing wrong plans are BA's issues not Russia's. Russia taking time (may be couple of hours) to approve revised plan is not Russia's fault.

Headwinds need additional fuel
Simple option would be to refuel at a airport closest to the route. They could have done this before entering Russian airspace. Probably BA cannot pay for fuel in Russia because of sanctions.

Technical fault
If this technical fault is minor enough to allow all the way back to LHR, I am sure plane is safe enough to continue to HND.

Flight Duty Limits
With avg flight time of 11hrs, I am sure this has second set of crew, so extending(as an exception) by couple of hours shouldn't be a problem.

Leaves with only one justification, BA didn't want to pay anywhere else other than cheapest negotiated prices at London.

KARFA

Well you have made up your mind based on quite a few assumptions there. As simons1 has already noted, there are quite a few stories flying around and all the facts are not actually as clear as you have set out.

simons1

If it was a major technical issue I doubt the plane would have detoured back from Central Russia.

Presumably the reason was they had the parts at LHR and didn't have them at HND. Although as I said before who knows what the main issue was, fuel, crew hours, or the medical emergency the people in HND were advised of.

KARFA

A lot of assumption there.

televisor

My understanding is:
- by the time Russian approval was granted, not enough fuel to get to HND (and/or new route and not enough fuel).
- minor technical fault: minor enough to permit flying, major enough that it needs fixing before the next takeoff (so if they grab fuel they're grounded), and possibly uncertainty about how quickly it can be fixed
- completely hypothetical: too heavy to land immediately, forcing them to either burn or dump fuel.

So the options are:
* Land close by - nightmare with replacement aircraft, crews, accommodation, etc (and possibly the fuel dumping).
* Land somewhere in Russia or China: same as above but even more complicated
* Land in UK: easier to get replacement crew, parts. No immigration issues for most of the plane. They don't need to rely on that specific aircraft to be fixed, easier to accommodate.

avcritic

More than 25% B777 content is sourced from Japan.
JAL and ANA have ~100 B777s

So probability of HND not having a B777 spare part is near ZERO.

JAXBA

Quote:

Originally Posted by simons1

Presumably the reason was they had the parts at LHR and didn't have them at HND.

Quote:

Originally Posted by avcritic

...probability of HND not having a B777 spare part is near ZERO.

But if there wasn't enough fuel to get to TYO/diversion point, there would have been a lot more 777 parts over Japan...

Couldn't get to Japan for the part, didn't need to land immediately, knew that aircraft would be grounded when it landed plus knowledge that greater support resources as well as fresh crew/fresh aircraft available back at base - I'd rather divert back to LON than a random Russian/Chinese airfield, as exciting as that might be.

LON: known unknowns
Siberia: many unknowns

ianfly

The pilot normally makes the final decision and they tend to prefer to get back home to an airport they are used to. Whatever the reason, this isn't exactly an everyday occurrence and everyone landed safely.

Honestly it's not the end of the world, if I was onboard I would've slept all the way through and not noticed.

I feel bad for whoever made the mistake, it'll cost a lot in compensation.

simons1

True, as I said earlier who knows what the sequence of events really was. Allows can look at is different scenarios.

Dealing with anything that comes out of BA these days requires a high degree of interpretation to separate the fact from the fiction.