BA268 LAX-LHR 29 January - Delayed by over 4 hours
 

Anyone know why? Fairly regular route for us, just being nosey!

There has been a couple technical problems with the A380s over a couple of days.

Thanks CIHY x
:tu:

Ahhh the BA26-Late strikes again !

Actually, this one might be a bit more interesting than a normal tech issue; an Engineering pal of mine said that, yesterday, a 787 was being towed into the TE stands (that big parking lot for planes you can see when taking off or landing on the southern runway) and bang where the bottleneck is between the Casualty hangar and Technical Block E the tug that was towing it broke down. A 380 was being towed out and got caught in the traffic jam for a while so it got late back to T5. It could be the bird that was going to LAX?

A similar question was asked about the outward flight yesterday, but got no replies.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...269-delay.html

Perhaps the more informative title of this thread helped attract more interest.

But a 4 hour traffic jam?

Depending on the issue, it could've. Especially if the tug was clamped shut, you needed to un-clamp it, then move the 787 away and so on... Without accounting for the cascade effect on the 380 tow, catering and so on.

Deleted.

I was on this flight and the above timeline seems about right. Was emailed about the delay around 11:30 that departure was pushed 2 hours due to "essential engineering work" being carried out on the aircraft. Once all pax had boarded we waited another 45 min or so for a pilot to arrive. Then waited another 30 minutes or so for a tug to push us back from the gate.

While waiting for the tug one of the pilots timed out and we had to wait for a relief pilot. Once he finally showed up and the door was closed we had to wait another 30 minutes or so for a tug to push us back.

On the bright side, this should be some nice EC261 compensation!

Yes, I suppose so, but goodness, this is why EC261 exists - it should have been so clearly in BA's financial interest to avoid any of this. I fully know that when it comes to aviation, if one thing goes wrong, 4 things go wrong, but this was quite some muddle.

A whole array of events, starting with the 2 hour late tow. Followed by a passenger offload once the Jetty was off. Jetty back on and meant a relief pilot was needed. By the time you were ready for your tug, your tug crew were stuck on the BA11 for nearly an hour as there was a hydraulic fluid in the taxiway behind them which needed clearing. Several other issues with the BA55,27,57 and 11 meant there was no spare A380 tug crew to push you back when you were finally ready!