Originally Posted by
fox niner
Actually, no. For an etops enroute airport to be “adequate” you do not even need fuel at the airfield.(theoretically)
It is one of the trick questions presented to us during command training.
I received this email yesterday from a good friend who flew those routes for UAL until a couple of years ago. His take is different. I include the entire message because it's all relevant to some extent:
I suppose you know the history of Shemya, as it relates to the beginning of airline service to the "Orient" - by what was then called Northwest Orient Airlines. They leased the entire island for use as a maintenance, staging and refueling point, and using it as an ETOPS alternate is quite common in today's trans-Pacific operations.
Reading the article, it sounds as though Delta *may* have left those poor people on the airplane for 12 hours. Whether or not they did, the airline is *supposed* to have all logistics arranged in advance for just such a diversion - including de-planing, food, lodging, etc.
I flew several trips with a guy who had once had to divert to Cold Bay, population ~80 - at least at the time of year of their diversion. They all stayed on the island ~24 hours, with the passengers "accommodated" (cough!) in a gymnasium or similar. I once flew over the Aleutians on a quite rare clear, moonlit night, and those mountain peaks stick up awfully close to the various diversion airports. Sure glad it wasn't me!