Originally Posted by
Aelkobi
seems to be a bit of a contradiction to me, an emergency situation and by-passing all these closer alternatives, all of which regularly handle 777's.as far as familiarity is concerned I think anyone who is familiar with LHR procedures could use any of the others with their eyes closed - nearly !
so... it must be Saudi handling.... !
thanks for your reply.
It was 'only' a medical emergency. Although how much of an emergency it was would be debatable. Of course there is no way the flight could continue to NYC with a mother who had just given birth, but thinking sensibly, Saudia do fly to LHR, it would be the best airport to go to if the flight was eventually cancelled as they have plenty of ground staff to reroute passengers and sort out accommodation for them and crew. This would be a consideration for the company if they had time to act and plan. Dumping a 777 full of people into a place where the airline and air crew have no infrastructure in place would make the situation much more difficult.
If it had been a situation where the aircraft or the life of someone onboard was in serious danger then an immediate landing at the nearest suitable airport would most certainly have been the course of action, however I imagine this was a somewhat controlled situation with at least someone on board, even if not the crew, being able to deliver a baby safely and keep an eye on the health of the mother and child until landing.