What is the longest time an international 747 crew can work ?
At what time does their time clock start ticking ? When they show up at the aerodrome, when they start loading passengers or when the plane pushes back? On Jan 21, 2007 some friends were travelling SFO-SYD on 863. An initial announcement was made that there would be a delay for the IAD, ORD & DEN connecting passengers. Boarding was delayed to about 23.00
The connecting pax arrived about 23.30. The aeroplane taxied out about 50 metres and there was a problem with the tug / nose wheel.
The captain promised favourable flying conditions and they would certainly be making up some time en-route.
Take off was delayed until 1.50am some three & a half hours after the scheduled depature. Arrival in Sydney was at 10am some two hours late.

With full flights ex LAX & SFO I appreciate UAL was keen to operate the flight but at what point is it over time limits for the crew?

My friends were most appreciative that the crew did not call it a night and delay them a day getting to Sydney.

Flight crews are limited to 8 hours of duty. On flights where the block time is over 8 hours, they carry a relief crew.

With the initial push back at 23.30 (SFO time) to switch off engine time in SYD 10.00 the block time would have been 15.5 hours so I figure if the flight had been delayed another 30 minutes they might have might not departed at all.

I think they would have called in a backup crew if the crew was going to go illegal. Given SFO is a major UA base, I am not sure this would be a problem in normal circumstances.

However, I think the 8 hour duty time limit for the flight deck is actual flying time and there is a higher limit for duty time. There may also be union rules that are more restrictive than the FAA rules.

International flights have different duty regs and rest requirements. 8 hours only applies to domestic operation.

[QUOTE=das;7204891]I think they would have called in a backup crew if the crew was going to go illegal. Given SFO is a major UA base, I am not sure this would be a problem in normal circumstances.

There are at least a doen F/As on the aeroplane and four on the flight deck- appreciating SFO is a major 747 hub, would it really be that easy to russle up another crew at midnight who are going to be away from their base for 80 hours
(usually IIRC the crews spend about 55 hours in SYD before returning to the US)