Strawb

Boarded the flight just before 09:30 this morning, I'm still sitting onboard the flight now after it diverted to FAO this afternoon. Just pushed back now from FAO at 18:42 after a 3hr 15 refuelling stop and now flying back to London LHR. Decision to fly back to base was made by Control in London, which further exacerbated the delay as it took over 2hrs to finalise the loadsheet. Lots of tired and angry pax onboard and crying toddlers. Feeling sorry for the crew but feeling even more sorry for myself. No food since brekkie was served after takeoff, extremely hungry pax in Y, I'm lucky I got fed though all that was uplifted in FAO were small snacks and water, according to the cabin crew. Taking off now.

BAeuro

That sounds so painful and a real nightmare. Notably the later flight to FNC diverted to Porto Santo and is trying to get into FNC later tonight.

As your flight was the first one to be diverted, I’m surprised you didn’t get PXO, it can’t have been full.

The whole FNC situation does give me anxiety though.

BWBriscoe

Was it wind? I saw BA2784 was holding but the METAR only had a headwind of 20 knots. What's the limit?

Robert279

I believe it's 15kts with gusts up to 25kts, mandatory, for a northerly approach and landing. Today there were gusts up to 45kts.

BA2780 has just arrived at Funchal from its Porto Santo side trip, which begs the question as to whether the return will get back to LHR before the 23:00 curfew. Unlikely, so it might require a night stop.

It's unfortunate for those on 2784 that this might be the first time they have visited Green listed Madeira - and found themselves back at Heathrow. It's a lovely island, but increasingly WX has been a problem. There have been proposals to relax the stringent mandatory limits and allow pilots to use their judgement (a few years back we followed a LH flight in, that landed well outside limits). There have been proposals, to relocate the airport, but finding a flat piece of land away from the Atlantic gusts would seem a tall order.

Selfishly, I do hope the winds abate by next week-end!

ukgooner

It's not common though it does happen. Today the weather in Funchal itself was really calm, but you never know what the airport is like as it can be windy there.

BA seems to be less risk averse than others, in that they give it a good go. TUI seems to be the opposite and will just cancel and not even try. Easy somewhere in between. Im not sure what's best really, as I'd say 50% of the 'never even tried' could have probably got in.

The diversion option to PXO only works if they think a delay is going to be an hour or less, otherwise the crew go out of hours for the return. The problem really is that there is little wiggle room on the trip - its potentially at least a 9 hour day there and back, and with fares as low as they are at the moment (Wizzair is charging £15 one way for example) and with hotels suddenly 80%+ occupancy, unscheduled overnights at FAO or PXO are just not practical or affordable.

TheFlyingCyclist

It was blowing a gale until around mid-afternoon. Very windy on the exposed sections, wind coming down off the mountains very strongly. Still, great riding! Hoping it’s all sorted by Sunday…

Strawb

Touched down at LHR at 20:59. Wind was the issue as you all guessed correctly, on approach to FNC we held for 45 mins as gusts were at the top limit for landing, before diverting to FAO. Was expecting nothing more than a small filled roll for the return flight, was pleasantly surprised we received a full hot meal. Y pax received bread rolls and biscuits and nuts only. Hotels will be provided at BA's expense even though this was a weather related delay. Crew was excellent throughout.

Edit: Now automatically rebooked on BA2666 departing at 11:50 tomorrow morning.

Robert279

BA 2781 is indeed en-route LHR, O/H Brest with 40 minutes to go.

Airprox

LHR has no curfew, it is open H24. As a based carrier BA gets an allowance of the night-noise quota which is theirs to use as they please, and given that they are not using anywhere near their normal amount with early morning arrivals they can easily run whatever unscheduled ops they like at night within their allowance. The much bigger problem in these cases is actually having people available on the ground to meet the flight.

Robert279

Interesting to know Airprox. The so called 'curfew' has featured a few times on these pages, I guess it's become something of a given. Re staffing, I do hope the passengers got their baggage!

1Aturnleft

The advantage and saving grace of return catering ex LHR - everything is already on board that would have been given to the returning passengers.

I do feel rather sorry for those in Traveller who hadn't the foresight to pre-order anything. 8 hours with nothing to eat but water, crisps and nuts. What's the betting most passengers down the back will pay a visit to M&S, WHSmith, Boots or wherever else is open and stock up on a few provisions ahead of this morning's flight just incase it happens again?