BA tech problem in Nairobi

[Beanbag]

Saw this in today's Times:

Hundreds of British Airways passengers endured a two-day delay when a technical hitch left them sitting on their plane on Nairobi airport runway for six hours on two successive nights last weekend. Some passengers complained that the captain had been rude but BA said he that had had to raise his voice to be heard.

Anyone have any background (ignoring the twaddle about the 'rude' Capt. please!)? Two nights in a row seems a bit odd.

[BAe 146-100]

The culprit looks to be BA B744 G-CIVN. It left LHR @ 11:17 on the 27th Aug (last Saturday), and only returned to LHR on the 30th Aug (Tuesday) @ 08:16 so this has to be the aircraft that had the problem.

What actual problem was I don't know.

BAe 146

[Carnage Matey!]

Thrust reverser problem I heard. I'm sure NBO ATC would be rather upset about it blocking their runway for 6 hours each night.:bored:

[A-FLOOR]

How does a reverser problem block a runway for 6 hours every night? :confused:

Is it an issue of tail height/aircraft size or something?

[Lars Torders]

G-CIVN was in NBO on the 27th it seems to have probs on the no 3 eng rev/gear box. Nothing to suggest why it would be AOG. Can't remember the MEL but dont think a rev prob would ground the a/c or stop it taxiing.

[Captain Airclues]

Don't forget that to a small number of our friends in the press, any piece of concrete on an airport is a 'runway'.

Airclues

[spannersatcx]

dont think a rev prob would ground the a/c or stop it taxiing

Unless of course the other one on the wing was already locked out.

[Globaliser]

There may be a few more details here (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=467067) about what happened, although the focus of that thread is on other matters.

[apaddyinuk]

Similiar incident happened a number of months ago following a aborted takeoff from KIN on a 777, Captain needed security backup when announcing a further 24hour delay on the second day, But what a credit to BA he was!

[Bearcat]

On another note why are signatures all scrawled On G-CIVY a BA 744 parked at the hangars abeam 27L LHR?

[Globaliser]

Before the witticisms start, the serious answer is that it was a flying petition for the Olympic bid.

I do, however, remember a number of the individuals who purported to have submitted their names for inclusion, and only hope that someone with a keen eye and a sense of humour was able to delete them.

[Swedish Steve]

Nbr 3 reverser failed on landing, and I mean failed
It needed major engineering to lock it out.
Unfortunately after taxi out the second time there was an
engine control message which needed TRCP rigging which took time. The SLF left on another aircraft.

[Hotel Mode]

Ref GCIVY : gave me something to read on my walkround in GRU, no dodgy names but several Tony Blairs and Steve Redgraves! Now thats just being greedy

[Happy Boy]

The reverser failed partially deployed on landing. The problem was caused by a failure in one of the gear boxes. Because it was partially deployed the engineers could not get easy access to the gearbox to release it. Consequently the crew ran out of hours. The engineers were still trying to get access to the gearbox at the top of the engine in the pylon six hours after the a/c landed. The blocker doors in the tailpipe were fully deployed and restricting access. It became the usual creeping delay with the added difficulties of NBO being a High security alert airfield meaning that the movement of the passengers off the a/c into the terminal was severely limited.

Reverser lock-out is normally a straightforward fix, on this occasion it proved not to be.

On the second night the a/c was taxied out and an engine control message EICAS advisory was received. This is a nil dispatch item and requires further engineering action. The a/c was not blocking the runway.

Onboard was the Evening Standard editor and her husband, Tom Bowyer (Richard Branson autobiographer!!). They took exception when the Captain decided to move 8 passengers to the other BA flight. These were the only seats available. The passengers that were moved all had close relatives who were dying and one was deaf. Unfortunately Mr. Bowyer did not believe this. No one was ever rude to him or the passengers but obviously tabloid journalists have no desire to report the truth and this was the only way that they could get back at the Captain and the crew by distorting the truth yet again. (One relative actually died during the second delay so morally it had been the right decision, corporately perhaps the press should have been got rid of first!!!)

In fact the crew including the pilots stayed with the passengers until the last one was sent to the hotels on both nights. They reunited passengers with their bags, and generally helped and assisted the ground staff. No one was rude to anyone.

On the final night they reported ahead of their duty to assist passengers with their check-in and security procedures. The press had already gone off via Ethiopian airways and never saw any of these efforts!!

Unfortunately BA is not flavour of the month with certain sections of the press.

Moral of the story.Treat the press with the contempt they deserve. treat their articles with even greater contempt because the truth is rarely there.

As an aside BA management were incredibly supportive of the crew and their actions. Moral of the story managers are not always out to get you.

BALPA were also very helpful and the issue of pilots being named in the press will be raised at the next NEC meeting. The Times refrained from naming but the Evening Standard had no such reservations.:D

[wiggy]

Happy Boy
Thanks for that very informative post, don't you just love the press..........Not sure what can be done about the naming issue though, since the guys/girls normally introduce themselves during the "welcome" PA.Perhaps we should all start using our pprune "handles".............