Air Turn Back

[CarpetFlyer]

American Ailines Flight 545 out of ORD for LAX at 1640 on Sunday Feb 4 turned back shortly after takeoff. The aircraft was landed heavy (no fuel dump) with emergency services scrambled.The aircraft was replaced. Does anyone know why they turned back?

[Jgossett]

They forgot the pax :}

[CarpetFlyer]

Um... Nope... My daughter was on it and she attests to there being other passengers aboard.
She also reports that, included with the emergency vehicles that met them, there were several large, black SUV's with tinted windows. Also reports that there was no delay, no queing to get back into sequence. 5 minutes into the flight and then 5 minutes later back on the ground. Don't know how accurate the times are, but her impression was that it happened very quickly.
So it sounded a little outside the routine, and we're curious as to what happened

[FCS Explorer]

well, didn't the crew give some kind of explanation?

[CarpetFlyer]

The pax were told that there was " a MINOR technical problem". Nothing more.
For "minor" problems you don't turn back, jump the queue, land heavy, have the emergency services out, replace the aircraft.
Something doesn't add up.

[chiglet]

The pax were told that there was " a MINOR technical problem". Nothing more
What did the Fd say to ATC?
Captain... "We have a problem, No2 engine has desintegrated"
F/O........"We have a Minor Tech Problem, and are landing ASAP to rectify it"
Now, Transpose those "Broadcasts" :E
watp,iktch

[llondel]

I thought it was standard practice to reassure pax and emphasise the word 'minor' as much as possible, at least until it's necessary for their safety to tell them it's much worse (or it's obvious that it's bad). If the reported SUVs were relevant, they might not have wanted to alert the person(s) concerned until the aircraft was safely down again.

By 'land heavy', do you mean over the normal max landing weight? If so, does that mean a major stay in maintenance for the aircraft concerned to check for bent or broken bits?

[barit1]

Did she count the number of pax before/after? Perhaps one or more were detained and the first aircraft held for a cabin search.

AA545 is listed as a 757 - if fueled for ORD-LAX, I doubt it was much over max ldg wt.

[Say Again, Over!]

Can a 757 even dump fuel?

I wouldn't make too much of this. It could be any number of things all in the realm of "minor technical problems".

You'd be surprised at how little it takes to have the trucks waiting. Many times, I've seen the tower put the trucks on stand-by just in case the situation deteriorated quickly. It's good practice for all involved anyway, although I understand the passengers' anxiety.

My guess is that the dark windowed SUV were airport staff vehicles, usually called out for any event.

Felix

[cwatters]

Sounds like they forgot THE celeb pax arriving late in the SUV :-)

[CarpetFlyer]

Plenty of opinions and wry comments (which I have enjoyed). Does anyone know where I can find the facts?

[DingerX]

Mate, you won't find any facts here: just journalists and basement-dwellers pretending to be aircrew to serve their egos, and pilots accusing other pilots of being basement-dwelling simulation players.
Every few days, there's a news item posted around here about "terror at 20,000 feet" with interviews of all manner of ignorant folks. Aviation incidents are a journalistic goldmine: every compressor stall is an opportunity for fearmongering.
But, as this thread migrates over to the spotters' balcony, I'll note her times are inaccurate.
The flight was wheels up at 16:48 local time, turned back while climbing through 19000 feet, and landed (with "parting of the seas") sometime around 17:13. That's 25 minutes on my count.
That much you can find out from the flight tracker (http://www4.passur.com/ord.html):
punch in February 4, 17:45, and in a few minutes your flight will roll off to the west.
Outside of that, there's a chance some no-life basement dweller recorded the approach, but you'll have to ask around. Try airliners.net or something.
Or you could always write the airline.