BA 288 Phoenix - LHR diverts to Montreal

[4HolerPoler]

BA plane forced (sic) down in Canada

22/08/2004 London - A London-bound British Airways plane carrying 302 passengers from Phoenix, Arizona was diverted to Montreal on Sunday for technical reasons, a spokesperson for the airline told AFP. "The plane was diverted into Montreal" early in the morning, he said, adding that the Boeing 747, flight BA 288, "landed safely" at Pierre-Elliott Trudeau airport. "Engineers are checking the plane at the moment and the plane will hopefully take off again later today" for London Heathrow Airport, the spokesperson added. "We are putting up all passengers in hotels for the time being."

Wishful thinking on the part of the spokesman methinks.

4HP

[JW411]

Rumour has it that BA have finally traced 5000 of the latest set of missing bags to Montreal. Could the two events be connected?

[Lost For Words]

I was over Canada at the time of this incident and heard most of it unfolding over the radio:

From what I could hear, there had been electrical smoke in the flight deck. The pilots had donned their oxygen masks but still managed to communicate quite well with ATC.

Quite a nasty incident when you're over a remote area of Canada (250Nm North of Montreal) and it's dark. By the time they made the decision to divert to CYUL it sounded like the smoke was dissipating and things were getting better. ATC were trying their best to be helpful and suggest suitable diversions. That said, declaring a PAN didn't have much effect so MAYDAY did the trick.

The crew seemed to be on top of things but I was slightly surprised by how long it took them to actually declare an emergency. It often seems that pilots don't like to say those magic words, "Declaring an Emergency" or Mayday. I wonder why? Is it because we secretly feel like it was our fault, maybe we could have done something to avoid it?

Food for thought but well done to the crew of BA288 who got their big white bird down safely.

LFW

[Smurfjet]

...when you're over a remote area of Canada (250Nm North of Montreal)...

Hardly call that a remote part of Canada! Now the NCAs are a different story.

:ok: :ok: to all those involved for a job well done.

CBC article (http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/08/22/plane040822.html)

[WHBM]

Well it's a good thing it was not the other way round, a flight from Canada to the UK having to make an unscheduled landing in the US.

"My god sir, there's a whole planeload of unexpected passengers arriving, what do I do ?"

"Just get 350 pairs of handcuffs ready son".

[BRISTOLRE]

Last time I was on this these flights were operated by B777-200.
Recent incidents may have left BA short of B777s and left them to sub the 289/288 a B747?? I hope this wasnt the very same B747-400 of BA that had to turnaround and come back to LHR last week, also a smoke in the cockpit related incident.

[wiggy]

Smurfjet - how true - NCA C for example.
btw I think you need a more subtle "handle" :-)

[BigAir]

BRISTOLRE, I think BA moved this back to the 747 after Lufthansa pulled out of Phoenix - BA are now the only direct service to Phoenix from Europe, so the 747 was put on for extra capacity... Damn shame really as I have been trying to get an ID80 to Phoenix all summer and there have been absolutely none as I guess the anticipated loads are too high... Will have to buy a full fare ticket maybe:eek:

[SplashDown]

BRISTOLRE, BA have this year and last year switched to a 400 from a 777 around April/May time which I would hazard a guess as something to do with increased loads in the summer. Couple of years ago the LHR-PHX used to go onto SAN which was then a 400. I believe they switched over to a 777 when they stopped the shuttle.

BigAir, You can always risk an ID90 and spend your days trying to get on!

:ok: Job well done to all the crew!

[BigAir]

Splashdown, Would love to get an ID90, but am too old now - waiting to get my first job to get my own staff travel :ok:

Well done to the crew though, forgot to mention that but always good to hear a safe outcome.

Thing that gets me with the Phoenix loads being high is all the Yanks seem to go to Phoenix in the winter as the weather is very pleasant and the Golf Courses in great condition - whereas at up to 40+ degrees C in the summer it is a bit on the warm side - great place to live though, makes living back in the UK with our bad weather very hard...

BigAir