RAF:
“This flight was coordinated with Heathrow ATC but had to extend by a few minutes to complete its sortie. The minor delays caused to civilian air traffic are regretted.”
At least four British Airways flights and one Virgin Atlantic flight were forced to divert to other London airports including Gatwick, Stansted and Luton. (Guardian quote)
Regretted, you bet. Off the top of my head, at least USD 200K loss for extra fuel, crew costs and lost pax time. I'd guess VS had to move a fresh crew to LGW as the flight from LAX would have exceed max. crew time.
VS announced to SLF it had only 5-10 mins fuel. I'd assume that was over and above the 30 min. reserve, if they ate into the latter, they'd have to declare fuel emergency - or not?
Last edited by Gegenbeispiel; 17th Jan 2020 at 22:06.