VS return to JNB
I was on the VS602 (from JNB to LHR) on 30 March that had to return to JNB 75 minutes into the flight because of the discovery of 'incorrectly loaded baggage'. Fuel had to be dumped and the flight returned to JNB, eventually setting off again perilously close to the crew's flying hours limit. I assume this means that the bags of no-show pax had not been off-loaded before take-off. One annoyed passenger apparently got obnoxious to the F/As and was offloaded by Johannesburg's finest when we got down.
Eventually, the resumed flight was diverted to LGW because the usual LHR delays would have caused the 3-man flight desk crew to have exceeded their hours. This was obviously very inconvenient to all concerned (I got home 6 hours later than expected), and I assume it must have cost the airline tens of thousands of pounds (or is it even more?). I don't suppose LGW sees many A346s, either.
Presumably the error was made a ground handling agent -- does this happen often? I've not had it happen before, and nor had the F/As. Did Virgin deal with it any differently to any other airline?
Incidentally, from the perspective of SLF, I thought all the crew did a great job.