fumje

From the helpful gcmap link posted above (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/34336990-post13.html), it is a little more than double the distance to LAX from the diversion point.

mduell

Flat as in closer to following a constant latitude than the great circle route.

As opposed to the westbound flights that fly well north of the great circle route to avoid the winds.

Kacee

I think most of us who are familiar with the westbound routing, which skirts the Aleutians, know exactly what mduell was referring to.
Yep. Fewer rungs on the ladder.

RRROOO

So disappointing to read things like this. What is wrong with people these days? You are not special!!! No arrests made....why?

State sheriff deputies who responded to the scene did not make any arrests relating to the incident.

LarryJ

Deadheading a crew would likely take longer than having the original crew rest.

There is no pilot base in HNL (or ANC) so you have to get a crew from a domestic domicile, likely SFO or LAX. The duty time will be challenging for a DH HNL then fly back immediately. To get pilots who can report quickly you have to use either a field standby or short-call reserve. Those pilot's duty clocks have already begun prior to being called. Then you need a flight to HNL that leaves at just the right time for the reserves to get to the airport and leave without any wasted time. If all of that doesn't line up just right then the crew will have to have a rest period in HNL before flying back and the original crew will be ready and rested much sooner.

Flights are routinely planned on routes which are not the shortest route due to ATC requirements and because of wind patterns. On a flight like this, a much longer route with a strong tailwind can easily be fewer "air miles" than the great-circle (shortest ground-miles) route.

findark

Out of curiosity, if say a crew operating a regular ex-HNL flight timed out for whatever reason, would that similarly mean there would not be any available crew to replace them right away?

colpuck

The answer is of course it depends. Sometimes the airline will just deck the crew for rest and continue on the next day, however if possible airline will move a crew from one flight to another in-order to keep the operation going. However when airlines poach crews from other flights, the end result is that the "can is just kicked down the road" and the flight the replacement crew were on now has to be recrewed.

There is no right answer here, it's a question of overall network stability versus immediate completion factor.

J S

I think we all know what they mean: More southerly than the GC route. This appears straighter when viewed on a distorted mercator projection map. The GC route passes closer to the Aleutian Islands.

HNLbasedFlyer

I would think that would present a significant challenge - but I suspect a timed out crew in HNL is a very rare occurrence - I don't recall it happening at least in my experience.

LarryJ

Crews on flights departing HNL are originating. They are coming off of rest so they have their entire duty day ahead of them. It would take a significant delay to cause them to time out before departure.

If one did, it would likely be for a long flight requiring many hours of availability remaining at takeoff. The easy solution for that is to redispatch the flight to SFO or LAX and recrew it there.

mahasamatman

According to https://liveandletsfly.com/united-ai...ulu-diversion/, the incident was categorized as Threat Level 2 - Physically abusive behavior. I hope it ends like this: https://onemileatatime.com/man-force...for-diversion/

PushingTin

No arrests made? No comment on passenger?

MatthewLAX

I've tried, but can't get anything more out of UA.

I have a feeling in a day or two we'll see video pop up on TMZ or the DailyMail or some such site...

buckeyefanflyer

Need more security on the aircraft.

Replacement flight same aircraft UA 3016 landing LAX shortly.

notquiteaff

I’d like to see a picture of the invoice from UA to the offender for the cost of the diversion (fuel, crew, landing fees, hotels, passenger compensation, ….)