krispy84

LHR - VIE in Dec 2008. We were in a holding pattern for what felt like ages at VIE due to fog then had to divert to BTS (Bratislava) for fuel. BTS wasn’t a BA destination and I remember the Captain getting his hi-vis jacket on to go and deal with the fuel delivery, I think it may have been a BA corporate credit card job.

We were expecting to have to hold again at VIE after departure from BTS but were cleared straight in. Definitely my shortest ever flight, less than 10 mins I think?

JeffBHD

Gander, Newfoundland - hundreds of shorts and flipflop wearing passengers bound for Miami disembarking down the steps into sub-zero Canada....

DYKWIA

I organised a work "do" to New York in about 1998 (I'm struggling to find the exact dates for my MyFlightRadar records). All bar one of us flew MAN-LHR-JFK on BA. The other person was married to a VS captain, so she got a freebie MAN-LHR-JFK on VS. We flew the MAN-LHR together, then went our separate ways.

Our B747-200 flight to JFK went fine until about an hour out, when we starting a holding pattern. The captain came on and said that due to an incident, Boston airport was closed, and most flights were diverting to JFK/EWR, which meant that we needed to hold. A few minutes later he came on again and said that they'd been told that the hold could be an hour plus - and that it would be safer if we were on the ground. So, we were diverting to Newburgh military airfbase (which I now know is Stewart airport). We landed about 30 minutes later. The captain said not to use mobile phones as we would be refuelling (which seemed strange).

We were on the ground for about 2.5 hours, by which point people had started using their phones. The Americans on board were phoning family and friends to try and find out what was going on at BOS, but nothing was being reported.

Anyway, we then got the go ahead to proceed. The engines started to spool up, and then were switched off. This was repeated a couple of times, before the captain came on again to say that they couldn't start one of the engines!! We would now need to get an engineer - so he said to expect another long delay. About 30 minutes later, the engines started to spool up again - and the captain said that by chance, an engineer was on board as a passenger - and he'd helped diagnose and rectify the issue. So, we were about to set off for the short flight to JFK.

Off we went and we landed about 30 minutes later at JFK. From what I remember, it was very quiet and were through immigration and customs very quickly.

We got to the hotel about 9pm and found our friend at the bar slightly sloshed... She was getting chatted up by a Delta pilot Her flight had taken off about 10 minutes after ours, and had landed into JFK without any delay. We asked the Delta guy about any issues at BOS, and he said he'd not heard of anything, and that he'd also flown in into JFK without any issues.

So, whatever the BA captain had told us about BOS was obviously not true. We never did find out the real reason for the divert...

krispy84

Imagine the tales that passengers were told in pre-Google days. 😁

HighwayToHEL

Likewise, never had a diversion on BA but did on KLM.

It was 1996, and I was due to fly EDI to AMS then AMS to DEL. Left EDI on the redeye and circled an oil rig in the north sea due to fog at AMS. We circled it for a full three hours! Eventually we landed at Rotterdam (which I didn't know even had an airport), got bussed to AMS and joined a horrendous ticketed queue for rebooking. Got rebooked onto a BA to LHR then a VS out from LHR to DEL that evening.

So having left EDI on the redeye, I travelled for an entire day and only got as far as LHR before the nighttime VS. This was all back in the day when there was no internet, I wasn't part of any airline FF clubs and I was travelling in Y. It was also my first ever trip to India. But equally, it was my first (and last) time flying with VS, and my first time in the UD of a 747. So quite memorable for right and wrong reasons.

DYKWIA

I've been at AMS a few times in the last few years when there have been issues. The queues at the KLM desks for disruption handling are still horrendous, stretching between terminals! Fortunately, I've always been on U2, and I've sorted myself out via the web & app.

moral_low_ground

Only ever had 3. One during the bad storms of 2008 when my SFO-LHR ended up at Prestwick (I was on BA747 CIVP). Got a train home from Glasgow rather than stay the night and wait for the next day.

Flight from SFO-JFK (AA 767) ended up at EWR due to low visability at JFK - was quite interesting as we held for an hour, approached JFK and could see the top of the control tower above the fog, got under the fog and just about to land when we went around. Captain said landing would have been ok but below minimums so not allowed and we diverted to EWR (no big deal).

And, very recently, flying into LCY (BA EMB 190) - the fog never cleared so we ended up in East Midlands.

T8191

NIL, over 367 sectors with 20+ different carriers.

One overshoot, one h-24 denature delay (KIN16 in my signature) and a few minor hiccups en-route. Boring but most satisfactory!

martin102

Only one but must have been in the 90s. Flew from Mauritius to Gatwick but got diverted to Stansted along with a host of other planes due to fog. Instead of flying back to Edinburgh with BA, flew back with Air UK to Edinburgh so only minimal disruption. Just wondering now if I claimed ORC!

scottishpoet

based in Krakow, which at times of the year has fog issues, leads to a number of interesting diversion destinations, and not just with BA. Fortunately I usually end up in KTW and then bussed, but BA usually goes to WAW or Budapest with the flight then coming to KRK the next day

Dave_C

A few years ago, had a LHR-MIA which ended up diverting to NAS due to thunderstorms at MIA. There were I believe 4 or 5 AA 757’s parked up beside us. After perhaps 90 minutes, we took off again for MIA. I think that from discussions with the crew, we were perhaps within 20 mins of the crew timing out and being stuck in NAS for the night.

jms_uk

Never on BA (even though my highest number of flights per airline is with them), but had two, both in 2009:
- FR from LDY to BHX had a bird strike at take off, so we diverted to DUB to change planes
- 2L from ZRH to BHX couldn't land due to heavy snow, so we diverted to MAN; from where we got bussed, only to find out no snow at all by the time we reached BHX

gerryod5

Flew from JNB around 1998/99, but LHR was fog bound so we were diverted to CDG and sat on the apron for several hours. My only time visiting France, although have never set foot on a French soil

IAMORGAN

Luckily only had 2 fairly bog standard diversions:

Flying LGW-SZG (Salzburg) ended up in Munich due to weather in SZG. Could have been bussed to SZG but decided to rent a car instead.

ATH-LHR on an A320 diverted to LGW due to fog at Heathrow. A bit annoying as we’d already had a significant (2-3 hour) ground delay in Athens due to ATC slot restrictions because of fog. Very good Purser looking after CE did a full bar run on the ground in Athens and handled a difficult situation with a great deal of charm & diplomacy.

arkellvspressdram

So this is a Las Vegas to London flight, maybe 7, 8 years ago, BA 747 takes off...and somethings different, I look up and down the aisles and after what seems like ages,CC are still seated when usually they'd have gotten up, drawn the curtains between cabins and begun service. I notice they're on the phone to each other, craning out of their seats so they can make eye contact down the aisles with each other as they're talking. I also notice through the haze of a terrible, terrible Vegas hangover sharpened by barely 2 hours sleep the previous night that the ride is a bit bumpy and our ascent appears to have levelled out a touch early. After maybe 20 mins of more and more people noticing this the Captain comes onto the PA, says something along the lines of "I'm sure some of you may have noticed that the ride is a bit bumpier than usual, this is because we've been unable to retract the landing gear. We cannot cross the Atlantic like this because the additional drag will consume too much fuel. I've spoken to the BA team and to ATC and we've agreed that our only option is to land at Dallas (I think it was) and get the problem checked out by the engineering team there. So what we're going to do now is fly in a set pattern while we dump fuel, you may see this in the form of vapour from the tips of the wings....[insert comforting words about how this is a standard procedure and we always have your safety as our no.1 priority, to be fair he was reassuring, to me anyway]".

Obviously at this point I thought "ahh so this is how they get extra doses of chemtrail into the system" then spent a slightly nervous 90-120 mins watching as we circled somewhere over the Southern USA with fuel or chem streaming from the wings. We landed without incident, and were following a car of some kind which had its emergency type lights on to the gate. Then the Captain told us we would be having our dinner on the ground while they checked out the wheels. For some reason the temperature in the cabin shot up and we ate a sweaty dinner. Then the Captain came over the PA and told us that they'd identified the problem and it was fixable, unfortunately they had to wait to get a part from Boeing which wouldn't arrive till the next morning, so we'd all get a bonus night in Dallas. Then followed the inevitable depressed stroll off the plane and into the queues for accommodation and bags. I was put up in a perfectly serviceable Crowne Plaza I think it was, with a fistful of vouchers for food and drinks, and took a bus the next day to a nearby town to stroll and eat and generally waste time.

Our plane was mended during this time and so we trooped back on the following evening. I recall that as I always do for unknown superstitious reasons and habit, I placed my palm on the outside of the plane as I was getting on and going through the door, sort of saying hello to the plane I guess. The CSD noticed this and immediately took it upon himself to reassure me everything was fixed and completely fine which was very sweet but unnecessary, he'd interpreted my odd habit as a sign of fear and I appreciated his concern. Anyway everyone was obviously paying pretty close attention to take off and ascent this time, and when the undercarriage reassuringly thunked itself into place shortly after take off there were more than a few relieved exhalations. After that it was a totally standard trip home with a really great CC who just exuded reassurance and positive vibes throughout. I've always paid a bit more attention to the wheels going up since then.