Airport "overflown" due to abnormal operation

[1Sailor]

Can someone translate what this might mean? This was the reason given as to why a flight was cancelled. Gate agents at airport reported that the plane "flew right over" the airport without landing as scheduled. This statement was accompanied with looks that indicated that this was a new one to them.

When I contacted the airline via phone for rebooking, the above entry was in their computer system.

[4Screwaircrew]

I would suggest a technical malfunction that would not stop an aircraft in flight, but might prevent departure.

[1Sailor]

What I did not understand is why the plane would not have landed at the airport where I was to change planes (one of the carrier's major hubs where maintenance likely would be done).

Also, I would think the carrier would want to disembark the passengers on the inbound flight at the hub rather than having the plane diverted somewhere else and then having to rebook all those people back to the hub and on to their destinations.

At the time, there were no weather issues in the area, but this was late last week when there were weather issues in other parts of the country. If the carrier felt they needed the plane elsewhere for AM flights, wouldn't they just say the flight was diverted?

Out of curiousity, I looked at the NTSB incident website, but nothing was noted for that day. If it was a technical problem in flight, would it not show up there?

[rsoman]

Okay- Dont know how it is over there in US of A.

But your type of situation is not unusual in India.

For instance, there is very heavy fog in northern regions of the country including Delhi, the capital of the country during winter time. So it has happened many times that an aircraft approaching an enroute destination but going on to DEL, will overfly the intermediate stop and try to reach DEL before the visibility goes down below minima. Especially if the flight originated from some city about 3-4 flying time away, then it can happen that the diversion is only at the last minute thereby "flying over" the intermediate point.

Again, you should realise that air routes are generally not established on the "as the crow flies" principle. Again taking Delhi as an example, the air routes to both BLR and MAA, both in the south of India are routed via Hyderabad, another southern airport after which they branch off to the two respective cities. What I am saying is that even the diversion you talked off, would not have necessarily meant taking the long way round to the final destination.

Hope this clears up things somewhat.

Cheerio