Singapore Airlines diverts due bomb scare

[GOLF-INDIA BRAVO]

SIA026 just diverted into Manchester due bomb scare, was en route FRA-JFK and was at 13W before returning

Manchester operating single runway (24L) at moment delays are building up

Golf India Bravo

[flightfull]

A/C now fully evacuated and passengers being held on busses in engine test bay.

A/C due to be towed to stand 80 in next 10 minutes. Both runways due to re-open 12 noon. RWY24L currently only one in operation with arriving A/C back tracking.

A/C now under tow to stand 80.

[CargoOne]

What they used for evacuation? Stairs or slides?

[flightfull]

Looked like one set of stairs on door 1R

All passengers still being held on busses in the engine test bay.

[Squadgy]

Did it land 24R or 06L?

[CargoOne]

One set of stairs to evacute 747? I would use another word rather than evacuation...

[flightfull]

A/C landed on RWY 24R

Now being towed to stand 80 with the usual party of fire engines following.

Taken from Sky News Website:


PLANE LANDS AFTER THREAT

A Singapore Airlines plane flying from Frankfurt to New York has been diverted to Manchester Airport following a bomb threat which was probably a hoax, Greater Manchester Police said.

The plane landed safely at 11am without a military escort.


A Greater Manchester Police spokeswoman said: "Early indications are that it could be a hoax but we cannot confirm that one way or another until full checks are carried out."

A spokeswoman for Singapore Airlines confirmed the Boeing 747-400 had landed safely and that no one had been injured in the incident.

She said: "Flight SQ26 departed from Frankfurt at 08.31 local time. It was diverted to Manchester Airport as a security precaution following information received by Singapore Airlines from the German authorities."

She was unable to confirm any further details about the nature of the threat and whether any code words were used.

A Manchester Airport spokeswoman added: "We can confirm that an aircraft landed here.

"It was a Singapore Airlines 747-400 which was flying from Frankfurt to JFK in New York.

"There were 293 passengers on board and 19 crew members. The passengers are disembarking at the moment.

"It was diverted into Manchester over a security precaution."

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

<<The plane landed safely at 11am without a military escort.>>

Good Lord, how on earth did the crew manage?

[Avman]

No military escort. I guess the RAF's Spitfire was on maintenance today then! :E

[MAN777]

I thought they would have put it on 24L, as previous (PIA). Then single runway ops would not have been such a pain.

[flightfull]

A/C now about to taxi to continue its journey to JFK. Looks like a big non event!

[superspotter]

And the journo's keep up their consistency, i.e. crap. The Sky news snippet on their web-site shows a picture of Heathrow Airport instead of Manchester Airport:uhoh: :uhoh:

[flightfull]

A/C just rotated. Only 2 hours 50 minutes on the ground. Not bad for a full scale emergency!

[Squadgy]

And the journo's keep up their consistency, i.e. crap. The Sky news snippet on their web-site shows a picture of Heathrow Airport instead of Manchester Airport

Made worse by the caption 'Manchester Airport' underneath !

[DoMePlease]

Pax evac on SQ 777's (I know this was a 744), requires the the firing of all fire bottles during evac. In this case, where an evac was initiated due bomb scare, would the Captain fire the bottles as well (an put the engines out of comission)? Or would Command discretion give the Captain authority to skip steps of firing the bottles?

[Max Angle]

This is the second recent occasion that a full airliner has diverted into a UK airport (STN and Air Portugal is the other one) and has only been given one set of steps to get the pax. off. For christs sake you might have a bloody bomb on the thing and the airport roles out 1 set of steps, truly pathetic. If the threat has been taken seriously enough to divert in the first place I reckon blowing the slides would not be too over top. You are going to feel pretty stupid if you do a textbook diversion and then 50 passengers get killed when the bomb goes off half way through a 20 minute de-plane down one set of steps. Going to be difficult to continue the journey as you now need new slides and you are going to hurt a few people during the evac. but I would prefer that option to collecting body parts from all over the apron. I think airport authorities need to urgently review how they handle these incidents, at the moment the response seem amateurish in the extreme.

[Scottie Dog]

Max Angle

Whilst I whole-heartedly agree with you about the question of one set of steps, I do query the 'textbook' diversion statement.

Many Mancunians have questioned why an aircraft turned back from 54N13W to Manchester. Why did an aircraft with a bomb threat overfly Shannon and Dublin? Do SQ consider our security to be better than that in Ireland (tongue in cheek)! :rolleyes:

[MarkD]

Well, if it were a fully loaded 744 being div-ed, they might have been worried about being about to operate on the shortish runway at EIDW - EINN should have been no trouble though...

(edited to correct incorrect airport designator - doh)

[Max Angle]

I didn't mean that the SQ flight was a textbook diversion just that having diverted in time it would be awfull for the bomb to go off with people on board just because an airport can't russle up more than one set of steps and with the slides stowed unused in their doors. If the crew flew over a number of suitable airfields to get to Manchester, they want their heads looking at IMHO.

[hobie]

with all the regular 777, 747, AN-124 Traffic and even the occasional AN-225 and C-5 Galaxy popping into EINN, I'm sure a 747-400 could have been accomodated at Shannon without undue stress :ok:

[MAN777]

Call me cynical but maybe its because MAN had Singapore Airlines staff on duty, to handle the diversion and assist in a quick turnaround. !

[john8b]

To tie up one or two unanswered queries, The fire dept asked the Captain, after taxiing off the runway, what his intentions were, either chutes or steps on, 121.6, the reply was from the Captain was that he was going to use steps.
To question the airports emergency procedure with regarding one set of steps may be a little premature , as I saw two sets of steps taken there even though only one was used. Whoever decided not to use the other set I do not know.
The only other thing that occured was the tug going up in a puff of smoke whilst towing it to stand 80 , and having to get another one to complete the journey.

[cormacshaw]

The bomb was on the tug?!! :}

[BlueEagle]

54North13West is quite a northerly track and the a/c possibly overflew Mancester outbound as it came from Frankfurt originally so a quick 180 and back to a place you know is a possible scenario, that and as pointed out by MAN777, the fact that SIA have staff at Manchester. Anybody got the track mile difference between EINN and EGCC from 54North?

[stiffwing]

DoMePlease
I'm not sure about SIA's evac procedures, but the airline that I work for has a "precautionary disembarkation" procedure which is a sort of a bastardised full evac, normally used after a high speed RTO or other situation requiring rapid egress of pax and crew, but not as rapid as the full blown evacuation. In this case, the fire bottles are not pulled, and stairs or slides may be used.
As I say, I don't know whether SIA have such a procedure
I think it would therefore be in the scope of the Captains responsibility that he would choose not to fire the bottles..it would cause a MAJOR delay if he did so.

[ManofMan]

I think everyone is missing something here, if this was a full scale bomb warning then to the best of my knowlage there is no way on earth they could have disembarked all the pax, checked them, all the luggage, cargo and had the aircraft back in the air in 2hrs 36 minutes, not even mentioning that after 1 hr of the deck the towed it to gate and let a fully fuelled Dragonair 747 taxi within 100 yards of a aircraft with a suspected bomb on ??.

Also if it were a full scale bomb warning, then why did they bring it into Manchester overflying heavily populated areas, the procedure is to take it into STN where it can be brought in over maily countryside.

Also the fact that with previous diverts (Olympic in STN) the news crews were all over the story.

Something amiss here, but despite my attempts to find out what I have managed to turn up nowt!!

Anyone got one of those light shedding machines handy ???

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

<<
54North13West is quite a northerly track and the a/c possibly overflew Mancester outbound as it came from Frankfurt originally so a quick 180 and back to a place you know is a possible scenario, that and as pointed out by MAN777, the fact that SIA have staff at Manchester. Anybody got the track mile difference between EINN and EGCC from 54North?
>>

Looks to me it's about twice the distance. From a point 54N13W to EINN is about 163 nm and to EGCC is about 358 nm.

[MarkD]

The impact on airport operations would probably have been minimised given EINN's lower traffic, far less urbanised approach and long expertise in handling diversions. Instead MAN was made single runway... for some tech difficulties sure head for the company but for a bomb which might have been set to explode in the approach?

[hobie]

who covers the costs involved at the Diversion Airport in Bomb Scare situations?