Potol
25th Feb 2008, 10:26
I have flown the CCU-LHR-CCU route on British Airways many many times. But on my second trip, sometime in March/April 2003, there was an onboard fire, we descended rapidly. Then the Captain announced that he was diverting to Riga Latvia. And minutes before we landed he told us that he would switch off one of the engines as a precaution. I remember landing in Riga utterly terrified and the smell of smoke permeating through the cabin. We weren't asked to evacuate immediately but then had to wait 10 hours at Riga before BA sent a relief flight.
I flew with a crew member from that flight on the same route a few months later and he told me that the cockpit door was on fire, and that the situation was pretty serious. We'd figured that out because as soon as we touched the ground in Riga, the Captain, on the PA system said: Phew, it's good to feel terra firma isn't it?
Anyway, I have two questions, one related to this, and one not:
a) does anyone know what happened on this flight- it is BA 147/146 from Calcutta and why we had to make the emergency landing and so on? It was a 747-400 I believe
b) As I mentioned I've flown this route many times and I've noticed every time that as we are about to cross the Pakistan border into India, the plane makes a detour, it turns left, then flies over Lahore in a loop and then heads back to India. Is there anyone who can tell me why this is so? (I've now noticed this strange flight path 5-6 times in about 2 years) Are there any special instructions about flying over Lahore? Any weather conditions etc?
I flew with a crew member from that flight on the same route a few months later and he told me that the cockpit door was on fire, and that the situation was pretty serious. We'd figured that out because as soon as we touched the ground in Riga, the Captain, on the PA system said: Phew, it's good to feel terra firma isn't it?
Anyway, I have two questions, one related to this, and one not:
a) does anyone know what happened on this flight- it is BA 147/146 from Calcutta and why we had to make the emergency landing and so on? It was a 747-400 I believe
b) As I mentioned I've flown this route many times and I've noticed every time that as we are about to cross the Pakistan border into India, the plane makes a detour, it turns left, then flies over Lahore in a loop and then heads back to India. Is there anyone who can tell me why this is so? (I've now noticed this strange flight path 5-6 times in about 2 years) Are there any special instructions about flying over Lahore? Any weather conditions etc?