The mysterious magically appearing A333
 

So I am completely confused and hope somebody can help me out.

I have an upcoming itinerary that is AMS-SEA-NRT (which unfortunately involves clearing C+I just to re-board the plane)

I have been following the times of the AMS-SEA flight and the SEA-NRT flight and have assumed they are on the same plane. Both are 333s, always arrive/depart from the same gate and when the AMS flight has been delayed, so has the NRT flight.

Well yesterday something happened and I have no idea what it was!

Flight 33 AMS-SEA was diverted to YFB (Iqaluit, CA) for a medical emergency. It stayed on the ground for a couple of hours and then took off for SEA, arriving almost 4 hours late.

Flight 7 SEA-NRT took off about 10 minutes late, well before flight 33 had arrived.

(NB all information is taken from some iPhone apps and the NWA website)

I just can't figure out where that airplane came from!

As far as I can tell there are 2 sets of flights involving 333s and SEA.

One routing is NRT-SEA-AMS, which was completed as scheduled yesterday

The other is AMS-SEA-NRT, which seemed to use a magically appearing Airbus.

The only thing I can think of (besides having a parked 333 in SEA) is that someone messed up putting in the correct arrival time and flight 33 really did not arrive 4 hours late.

Any ideas? Or where I could look to sort this out?

Your magical A33x in SEA could be one that is/was there RON for maintenance. SEA does maintenance on A33x fleet and thus most of the A332s as well as some A333 rotate through SEA. You would see something similar in MSP where it is common to see at least 1 A33x RON, sometimes there are 2-3 parked near hangers early evening depending on time of year and schedule changes.

-H

Wow, cool. Despite being Canadian I have never ventured that far north! Did they let you get out and clear immigration and go look around? What's it like up there? (Sorry for the tangent)

I really doubt that anyone besides the sick passenger was allowed off the plane and maybe any family members. I did a VERY quick search and only found domestic Canadian flights from YFB, so I doubt that anyone was allowed to go into town as there probably isn't an immigration facility there.

SEA often has a spare A33x sitting around. I'm not sure why; it may be due to light maintenance. However, you can usually see an A33x sitting in the hanger south of the south satellite concourse even while the NRT & AMS A330's are at their gates - usually S9 & S2.

-RM