Hi,
Does anyone know the reason(s) behind the following:
I flew back from Cuba (VRA) on the 22nd Jan on a Thomas Cook Airlines A330 (TCX 31L) back to Manchester.
After a 2 hour delay in VRA (sat on the aircraft), the captain told us that there was a problem with one of the 'systems' and he didn't want to fly over the ocean. Needless to say the crew wouldn't elloborate.
A new flight plan was filed which took us over the coasts of the USA, Canada and Greenland, passing as much land as possible. He also decided to take off 4 tonnes of luggage to allow for more fuel (this went down quicker than a knack**d lift!).
On take off, we'd just left the ground when the aircraft appeared to noticibly 'sink' and I really thought we were going down and we'd be part of the next 'What went wrong....' type of documentary.
He said that the aircraft was 'perfectly servicable' and there was no cause for concern!
Having crossed Greenland the crew went out of hours and another crew and engineer met us in Iceland. After much sratching of heads by the number 2 engine, we took off again and landed safely in Manchester some 7 hours late.
Does anyone know what was wrong and which 'system' was affected?