Shannon diversion
Looks as this one wasn't anything like last Sunday's very real emergency.
According to The Irish Times (4th September 2003), the ATA L-1011 had just taken off from Shannon (in the west of Ireland) at 1750 local, but 'five minutes later developed problems with one engine, forcing the pilot to shut it down and make an emergency landing back at Shannon'.
They had to dump '70-80 tonnes' of fuel before landing at 1835, according to the report. The aircraft was enroute from the US to Bahrain with US troops, and had stopped off in Shannon to refuel. The use of Shannon as a refuelling stop by flights with US troops en route to the Gulf (mainly civil airliners operated by contractors like World Airways) has been controversial with Old Europeans.
Maybe Ulster TV online meant thousands of feet above the Atlantic rather than thousands of miles above it...
Saw a fuel dump for the first time last September, when the AA 777 I was a passenger in was en route from MIA to LHR. A medical emergency meant diverting to Gander. The pilot was kind enough share his thoughts with the passengers after we'd touched down: 'OK, we're on the ground, what do we do now?' I have a feeling this could have been meant for a company frequency, not the PA...
Shamrock 602