Originally Posted by
SpringHeeledJack
What were the diversion airports when flying the long overwater Pacific legs ? Obviously Qantas were (perhaps still are) the world's safest airline in terms of lack of major incidents, so the routes were well planned and executed, but all the same....
Well there was no early ETOPS (was it 60 minutes for a twin jet back then? and with a 4 engined jet if you lost one you carried on to the nearest, or turned back if you could, the nearest of course, could be in the case of the Pacific be your actual destination.
There was Wake and Midway islands used but they were way North of the Fiesta Route.
From Fuji you then have American Samoa and the Cook islands, and New Caledonia behind you.
Not much else then until HNL...
I saw on Facebook a post about UTA flying their Caravelles on their Pacific feeder routes to Oz, and they did SYD and BNE direct -Noumea. No idea what sort of basic ''ETOPS'' there was in those days.
I thought it was 60 mins...