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Unexpected destinations - diversions on BA flights.

Unexpected destinations - diversions on BA flights.

Old May 18, 2020, 10:16 pm
  #61  
 
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I like a few others was due to travel to GIB last March and ended up in AGP.

I also lived in Jersey from 2001-2003 having moved there for work from Southampton. This was when BA flew to both SOU and LGW from Jersey. Invariably LGW was significantly cheaper so Id often book there if going home and get the train. On one occasion. The LGW flight was diverting to SOU and I said great Ill just go home. I was told this wouldnt be allowed as this flight didnt have permits to transport people to SOU so the Carib crew told me have to reclaim my bag and suddenly need to go to the toilet and miss the coach to Gatwick.

Thw other time was after offering to travel on a later flight at NCL down to LHR due to an equipment change the flight was overbooked and it was the start of the October half term. There was a fire in outbuilding at NCL that had taken out the landing lights on the runway and closed the airport. After leaving the gate and going to the naughty corner at LHR for an hour the aircraft took off for Durham Tees Valley. We were told to reclaim bags and wait for coaches however only 2 coaches arrived and 3 were needed. The lovely lounge staff heard of our predicament and brought supplies (sandwiches, crisps, fruit, soft drinks and beer)) to the remain8ng passengers. After 90 mins our coach turned up and we hurtled down the M1 and half expected the driver to say he would be taking us all the way to London but we arrived at MME, boarded the aircraft for. a short 22 mins in the air flight down to LHR. The ones who had been offloaded from the earlier flight were given prepaid VISA debit cards for the EU261 delay (was 3 hours later). We were told to keep this hidden from other passengers as they wouldnt be getting EU261 as this was beyond the control of BA.
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Old May 19, 2020, 12:07 am
  #62  
 
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The channel islands are notorious for diversions

My worse one was flying Guernsey to Jersey. I was planning to pick up
the BA service to LGW from JER

I was flying in a Britten Norman islander of aurigny . The fog had rolled into JER during the 15 min flight over
We made our first go around and could just make out the runway

Then we tried again
and again
snd again
and again

What started like fun started to feel like whats its like when you are on a Waltzer at the fairground and can’t get off There were only 2 if us passengers and one pilot in this nosy brute!

We eventually turned back to GCI
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Old May 19, 2020, 4:35 am
  #63  
 
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Surprised at C-W-S's lack of exciting incidents.
After a couple of PanAm adventures in the 80s (one stopping at Okinawa after losing an engine over the Pacific), had a couple of BA adventures. One was diverting to Hartfield in Sept 92 on Concorde - long story for another time! The other was on a B777, DEL-LHR, we started circling and releasing fuel. There was a medical emergency and the crew member I spoke to said we were going to land in Tehran. As we landed, it was obvious that we were not in Tehran! The cabin crew thought we were, but having lived there some years earlier I assured them that we were nowhere near the Alborz mountains. Turned out we were in ASB in Turkmenistan. They got the passenger off and turned the 777 round rapidly (although it was probably the first to have landed there!). One interesting thing, talking to the co-pilot at the top of the steps, he said, this is funny - last week I did a landing at ASB on the simulator!! .
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Old May 19, 2020, 4:38 am
  #64  
 
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Ive only had one diversion, on a CX HKG-LHR in 1994. I was connecting, hence nobody had informed me they had to make a refuelling stop at FCO. The reason was that due to increased Taliban activity, Afghan airspace was off limits, CX had exhausted their overflight rights over Iran and Iraq, well it was Iraq. Therefore they had to fly around the whole thing. Took us about 14 hours to Rome, and when we landed they slowly taxied around as no ground crews were available until 6 am. A quick crew change & new catering loaded. My very long 6 hour layover at Heathrow became two.

Not a diversion as such, but a colleague of my dad was flying from Lisbon to Maputo but somehow ended up in Boston. This was back in the eighties so slightly different protocols. The challenge was that back in those days there were a grand total of four weekly direct flights from Europe plus a biweekly one on Interflug. I cant remember how he finally got to his original destination, but we are talking several days.
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Old May 19, 2020, 4:51 am
  #65  
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Originally Posted by morges1
Surprised at C-W-S's lack of exciting incidents.
Turned out we were in ASB in Turkmenistan. They got the passenger off and turned the 777 round rapidly (although it was probably the first to have landed there!).
Turkmenistan Airlines has 2 77Ls
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Old May 19, 2020, 4:57 am
  #66  
 
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Originally Posted by BA6501
Turkmenistan Airlines has 2 77Ls
Now!!
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Old May 19, 2020, 5:40 am
  #67  
 
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Ive had a few and all bar one have been Belfast City to Belfast international.
The latest was last November coming back from a weekend in Vegas. I had been on a diet of gin and one hour sleep a night and found it hard to sleep on the flight home. Connected in heathrow and all was fine bar some very bad storms ahead. Got on the flight to Belfast and passed out before the doors had closed. Woke up in Belfast International and had not grasped the fact we had landed in a different airport than expected. Was carry on baggage and headed out of the terminal on auto pilot to where I normally parked my car. No car there, panic head back to the terminal which is 50 meters or so from the short stay, speak to the airport police to report stolen car. Go through details. Eventually click im in a different airport after 5 minutes of explaining. Run away to the extortionate airport racketeer taxi service and pick up said car in BHD.

In my defense I fly out of BFS weekly and have a fairly dialed in routine.
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Old May 19, 2020, 7:22 am
  #68  
 
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LGW-BCN back in 1988 or around that time. Diverted to CDG as the pilot shut down one of the engines. Arriving into CDG was accompanied to a remote spot by fire engines. Spent about 7 hrs on the tarmac before departing for BCN. If I recall Gary Lineker was on this flight though I was sat one row behind and across the aisle from me. Recall pretty much the whole of CE discussing Englands chances at the Euros that Summer. As is usual we were all overly optimistic.

ML
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Old May 19, 2020, 7:28 am
  #69  
 
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Some years ago on a flight from Singapore London Heathrow ,due to weather conditions we were diverted to Cardiff Wales airport and then by coach to Heathrow.All very well organised.
I live 25 miles away from Cardiff Wales Airport but I no choice but to endure a 3 hour drive to London,collect my car which was parked in the long term car park and then drive back down the M4 to home.

To add insult to injury,when we arrived by coach at Heathrow the weather was glorious
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Old May 19, 2020, 8:41 am
  #70  
 
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Not a diversion as such, but back in 2001 I was a regular on GLA - EMA with BMi. It was often a small Fokker and never that busy. On boarding one afternoon in GLA, the Captain announced that a similar flight EDI - EMA had been cancelled, so we would be popping over to pick the pax up before carrying on down to EMA. So we did, took about ten minutes in all, flying down the route of the M8 corridor, and then carried on our way. It was the demise of BMi that led to me being in BAEC, I had been a confirmed *A flyer up till then.
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Old May 19, 2020, 10:35 am
  #71  
 
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Only one BA diversion and that was LHR - NCL diverted to STN due to bad weather over Heathrow. We were then put on coaches round the M25 to Heathrow where, on arrival, the airport was pretty much deserted (it was that late) with no-one seemingly knowing anything about us. The fact that we'd diverted to Stansted didn't appear to have been communicated to anyone at LHR. I was flying back to BRU so missed my connection, but there were a lot of passengers connecting on to long haul flights who were really annoyed at having missed their flights to South Africa etc. After a night in a hotel and having my LHR - BRU flight rebooked by BA in the USA I arrived back at LHR to find my BRU flight delayed. Reason for the delay? It was the same aircraft that had flown me to STN the night before and had to be ferried over from STN to LHR!
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Old May 19, 2020, 10:58 am
  #72  
 
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Originally Posted by morges1
Surprised at C-W-S's lack of exciting incidents.
After a couple of PanAm adventures in the 80s (one stopping at Okinawa after losing an engine over the Pacific), had a couple of BA adventures. One was diverting to Hartfield in Sept 92 on Concorde - long story for another time! The other was on a B777, DEL-LHR, we started circling and releasing fuel. There was a medical emergency and the crew member I spoke to said we were going to land in Tehran. As we landed, it was obvious that we were not in Tehran! The cabin crew thought we were, but having lived there some years earlier I assured them that we were nowhere near the Alborz mountains. Turned out we were in ASB in Turkmenistan. They got the passenger off and turned the 777 round rapidly (although it was probably the first to have landed there!). One interesting thing, talking to the co-pilot at the top of the steps, he said, this is funny - last week I did a landing at ASB on the simulator!! .

I had a LHR-SIN journey and it ended up as LHR-ASB-DEL overnight then DEL-SIN due to medical emergency (crew member had a stroke) - I did manage to retain a very, expensive bottle of whisky in my hand luggage through DEL (crew forgot to tell us to leave it onboard overnight) and we were offloaded in Dehli as HBO.
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Old May 19, 2020, 11:15 am
  #73  
 
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So far with BA I've had a weather divert to PHL en route to JFK, fuel issue meaning a stop in LCA on the way out of TLV, and a pretty urgent landing at YUL on the way from YYZ to LHR due to incorrectly loaded volatile cargo. On AA I had a couple of hours on the tarmac at Shreveport, LA when flying NYC-DFW due to storms, and I've flown from Norfolk, VA to...Norfolk, VA due to weather in PHL.
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Old May 19, 2020, 11:36 am
  #74  
 
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Just the one flying Hyderabad back to Heathrow, diverted out of Pakistan airspace causing a refuel diversion to Vienna.
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Old May 19, 2020, 11:49 am
  #75  
 
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Earlier this year I got caught by fog (not unusual trying to get back to JER from LGW). Originally pushed back at around 14:00 and the pilot advised we had extra fuel in case we needed to circle. True to form got to JER and had to circle for a good half hour before giving up and turning back. Got back to LGW and kept on the plane as they hoped the fog would clear. A couple of hours later took off again only to get back to JER circle for another half hour and return to LGW for the second time. Finally off the plane at 22:00 for two nights at the Sofitel on BA. Not ideal after flying in from Seattle and needed back at work.

Also had a diversion flying AA from SFO to LAX On some ancient 767 or similar. Warning light indicates a fire so diverted to Bakersfield to be met by fire crews and media when deboarding. Quickly hired a car to try and get to LAX to make our connecting Qantas flight to Melbourne but no joy.
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