Weather Diversion
Not an airport diversion, just a weather diversion that added 1h30 minutes to a regular 9h30 flight.
This morning I returned to Kuala Lumpur from Johannesburg on MH204 in an elapsed time of 11 hours, on a route that took us up through Southern Africa to Beira, leaving the African Coast at Nampala and tracking to Moroni in the Comores and then running Eastwards just below the Equator.
The Reason: Tropical Cyclone TC04(S) is the Mother of all Cyclones, Cyclone Thane which is hitting South East India at the moment is the granchild of TC04(S).
I had a chat with the Captain at the end of the flight and he stated it was a planned diversion, but Singapore Airlines (SQ478/9), who left about 30 mins earlier, had flown direct. Must have been an interesting ride.
I have flown this route more than 70 times in the last 15 years and this was the first weather diversion, not too say that there haven't been delays in the serving of hot drinks, usually distributed hurriedly at top of descent.
Thank you to the Flight Planners at MAS.