JohnMacWW

Emergency oxygen system (for masks) leaked, presumably to zero.
Sitting on plane at gate now. Cannot leave unless we clear customs.
What are chances this is "quickly fixed"?
What is flight time from BOS- to IAD?

WineCountryUA

413 miles, a bit over an hour flight time plus estimated 30 minutes ground time

JohnMacWW

Thanks, things are looking worse timing-wise. Captain just announced that they are "flying up every replaceable part from New York" while the technician troubleshoots. Parts arrive at 4ish from New York (1.5 hours from now) so at best we would be 2.5 hours from now delayed before leaving again.
Uggh. We could have landed in New York where they had parts. Or better, not clear why we could not have completed flight to Dulles. I guess it was an "emergency" but it sure did not seem like that. We simply diverted. And we diverted to a location that lacks parts for the system that had failed.

Doc Savage

Without emergency oxygen, it's pretty clear why you couldn't proceed on to IAD. Without oxygen, if there is decompression, the pilot passes out and....

username

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_So..._Learjet_crash might be a good reason.

JohnMacWW

Well okay no one wants that. So Boston must have been closest airport. It took us a couple of hours from time problem occured to get here though. Not much out there below Greenland I guess. In one sense we were "lucky" it took as long as it did to happen or we might have diverted to Heathrow, Dublin, etc.

Hmm, so then why not drop the flying altitude right away? I think we stayed up at normal cruising altitude, though I admit I did not specifically look at that.

Still sitting here gateside. Parts arrived at airport but they have not found the problem yet.
Are there rules on how long we can be kept on the plane if we are connected to the gate? What about the flight crew? How long can they be "on duty"?

Apparantly, because of customs rules we cannot load food, just water. But we just ate the land meal we were supposed to have eaten before landing so noone is super hungry. But the attitude on plane is definately getting grumblier. Most of us are now going to miss connections and there is snowstorm coming into Dulles tonight as well. So more of us are of a mind that we would prefer to get off here in Boston. But is "all or no one" because of the need to clear customs.
Clearly UA saves money if they at least get us to IAD since then they have more flight options to re-route and less overnight accomodation costs since many passengers are IAD bound.

WhyPayRent

Yeah. Diverting definitely was the right move. Assuming it happened while over the Atlantic, kind of surprised you all weren't diverted to Bangor Airport.

iflyuaaa

Why not clear customs in boston while it's early enough in the day so people can catch connections? Boston has tons of flights that ua can endorse tickets to. Wouldn't that be cheaper than getting to iad late at night when everyone gs to overnight?

JohnMacWW

They would have to put everyone up overnight here. But if they get the plane to IAD then only the transfer passengers. So it is definately cheaper for them.

docbert

Looks like they seriously considered it - FlightAware is showing the original ZRH-IAD (Diverted), as well as ZRH-Bangor (Diverted) and finally ZRH-BOS.

There's not a lot of UA destinations from BOS, and we all know how much UA likes endorsing tickets to other carriers...

As this is still an international flight, PPBM rules would apply and any passengers that get off will have to have their baggage removed, so the only options are really to continue, or cancel the flight entirely.

Baze

Could have been a fuel thing. jets use a lot more fuel at low altitude. But why they didn't divert to Bangor or Newfoundland is strange.

JohnMacWW

Part is now replaced so flight will definately complete to IAD. Just a matter of connections.

username

You would think they have protected all the passengers for connections by now. If you are connecting, check your PNR.

JohnMacWW

I am still connecting through but am down to having 1 hour and 5 minutes to clear immigration and customs. But we still have pulled away from gate (or even shut doors) so each minute ticks by.
How much time (at best) to get from C1 through customs and immigration at Dulles (carry on only) and then to a D gate?

I am thinking I could make it 30 -45 minutes if run. Of course I will be last on the plane, I am not upgraded, so I will end up having to gate check my roller board.

username

I would call UA before the door shuts to protect you on the next connecting flight instead of checking Flyertalk Good luck!