Max ETOPS Time: 207 or 330 minutes???

[AeroTech]

Hi,

What is the maximum approved diversion time? (207 or 330)?

If the diversion time is 330 minutes, what are the improvemnts and the redundancies brought to the aircraft (mainly to engine & APU) to ensure more safety in case of diversion compared with other aircraft (even aircraft with 180 or less diversion time)?

Feedback appreciated.
Thank you
Best regards

[World of Tweed]

I've not heard of 330min and I don't actually know the current maximum approved time - I've heard Boeing wanted 300 for its latest re-hashes of the 777 but even that sounds an rather unhealthy to me.

In any case ETOPS clearance amounts are approved by taking into account a combination of Airframe and Powerplant reliability, Airline operator practices (maintenance, ops) and the availability of suitable airfields not to mention that operators history of ETOPS.

I believe that in terms of system redundancy the newer 777s have very few, if any differences from the older ones except that more time has elapsed and there is more data on inflight shutdowns and other "ETOPS events" that support an increased approval time. It must be noted that two airlines operating the same aircraft with the same engines can have different ETOPS times simply down to other reasons such as maintenance practices, or route structure requirements.

Boeings case on the +300ish minutes approval relies on opening up airports in the artic circle as suitable diversions - I can imagine the news headline....."Aircraft lands Safely after performing flawlessly for 5hours on Single Engine.....Passengers Freeze"

[Fly3]

I believe that Boeing tried to get 6 hours ETOPS clearance for their B777 in order that they could operate on all the polar routes. However, flying Polar Route 2 recently we had no communication with anyone for over 4 hours, not a good situation on 4 engines let alone 2 if things go pear shaped up there.

[LME (GOD)]

Most longhaul aircraft (nowadays) come out of the manufacturers hangar approved for 180 min etops. A 207 min etops can be requested and approved by the NAA on a case by case basis. I think the 207 is only required for trans-pacific flights on certain routings. If the airline is approved to fly Etops 120, 180 or 207 is a completely different can of worms!:eek:

[chornedsnorkack]

Most longhaul aircraft (nowadays) come out of the manufacturers hangar approved for 180 min etops. A 207 min etops can be requested and approved by the NAA on a case by case basis. I think the 207 is only required for trans-pacific flights on certain routings. If the airline is approved to fly Etops 120, 180 or 207 is a completely different can of worms!:eek:

I think ETOPS 207 is only allowed on North Pacific. And only for airport closures.

If you look at ETOPS 180 dead zones with all airports open, there are dead zones in tropical Eastern Pacific, then there is one in Central Arctic, and the Antarctic dead zone extends into South Atlantic, South Indian and South Pacific - in South Pacific, crossing from Easter Island to Society Islands is barely doable.

So there are a plenty of direct rules whose passability under ETOPS 180 would be much affected by closing a single diversion port, and quite some where ETOPS 207 would make the difference. But only in North Pacific is ETOPS 207 allowed.