BA London - Jo'burg unscheduled landing in Cairo?

[rcsa]

A colleague due to arrive in Joburg on the BA flight from London has texted to say the aircraft has made an unscheduled landing in Cairo. Anyone got any info?

[Blighty Pilot]

The ground crew in Cairo had volunteered for Willies cabin crew training programme. Their luck came up and they got an intensive course from Cairo to Jo'Berg :ok:

[Endeavour]

Why not text your colleague back and ask him? I'm sure that the crew would have explained!

[timtrb]

Most likely to offload a sick passenger. No doubt you will find out soon.

[rcsa]

Couldn't get through at the time; have now. Medical emergency was indeed the cause. A/C now can't leave Cairo till 20.00 local.

[ab33t]

I could not find any info on this

[CargoMatatu]

The important thing is that they missed the orphanage and the old folks home and/or hospital! :}

[wideman]

Cairo is a long, long way from the great circle route between London and Joburg. I understand that there aren't a whole lot of welcoming places if, say, you're over the southern Sahara, but still, I'd estimate that CAI is going to be at least a 1000-mile diversion from most routes.

[beachflt]

Take it form me as one who unfortunately has been there and done it, the one place not to go is Algiers

[kotakota]

Prob company advice or even Medilink ? also BA engineers etc in Cairo.

[dontdoit]

Wideman - Have you ever had to do an airborne diversion over Africa? No, thought not.

[goldeneye]

Would the Canaries not have been an option for diversion ?

[Nicholas49]

I think it's safe to say that the captain knew where best to divert given the circumstances.

I'm fairly sure (although not 100%) that he didn't feel the need to log onto this thread from the flight deck of his 747-400 to see where informed posters were suggesting he divert the aircraft. :ugh: Just leave it.

[intortola]

Was on a BA 747 a couple of years ago on this same routing when a passenger was taken ill, Captain advised we were diverting to Malta which was approx 21/2 hours flying time away, the captain fully explained the reasons we were going to Malta despite the length of time it would take to get there. Malta was not expecting a BA 747 in the middle of the night and refuelling took an age but the crew looked after us well whilst on the ground with plenty of refreshments. Crews are professional people and i fully believe they have our interests at heart and choose where to divert to based on the information and advise from on the ground even if it means taking a few hours to get there. Its all too easy from the comfort of our armchairs to criticise.

[oldtora]

Sitting in my armchair, I note that previous poster said diversion to Malta would be 21/2 hours to divert. Let's see, 21 divided by 2 is 10.5 hours to divert. :}

[intortola]

2.5hours or 150minutes approx to land from when captain gave the announcement, is that clearer?

[racedo]

Guys and Gals up top paid to make decision as best place to divert to based on passengers medical condition and also a rough idea of what kind of medical service pax would get plus whether airport can handle them.

Long as its not a diversion to drop off a couple of SAS types into a war zone leaving the plane behind then I go with their call.

[atakacs]

Cairo is a long, long way from the great circle route between London and Joburg. I understand that there aren't a whole lot of welcoming places if, say, you're over the southern Sahara, but still, I'd estimate that CAI is going to be at least a 1000-mile diversion from most routes.

That's also my initial reaction...

Anyone would care to describe the standard route between London and Joburg ?

Also what was their approx location when they elected to divert... ?

Something doesn't add up in this story :confused:

[srobarts]

I am just a humble SLF who has flown LHR-JNB and back many times. I have been to many of the sub-saharan countries on business. Once the flight gets down to Chad / Central African Republic where else is there to go? I looked again at the map and could find nowhere I would like to be landed. CAI must be the best alternative.

[wiggy]

It's a while since I flew this one but there were several "standard" routes, and one of them used to be via Faya Largeau-Kisangani so a diversion to Cairo may not be that unreasonable. Bear in mind this problem may have started in the early hours of the morning and there may :ooh: have been a distinct lack of both medical faciities and open and/or useable airports on this route until you get a long way South. I understand ;) they were airborne for around 5 1/2 hours prior to landing at Cairo, so just a very rough guess but that puts them at around maybe 20N or 15 N before turning back...

In BA's case a medical diversion is usually only made after a lot of discussion via satphone with both the medical professionals and the Company Control Centre.

[hardhatter]

Humble SLF with a question for cabin crew:

Diverting to Cairo for a medical emergency for that route will take some flight time, probably a few hours. Probably they made that choice because Cairo was the nearest field with good medical facilities, and the medical emergency was not so dire as to need immediate medical care. (Am i right in that presumption?)
At what point, if at all, would the decision be made to land at the nearest available airport as soon as possible, instead of diverting to the nearest airport with the best medical assistance? So, say, landing in Gabon or Togo instead of diverting to Malta or Cairo? Or will the flight always be taken to those fields instead of the nearest medical help?

[G-DESK]

I don't know any details about this particular case, but in general an advisory service such as Medlink will make a diversion recommendation based on a combination of the airline's preferred diversion points operationally and the availability and suitability of local medical facilities. Even in serious medical cases it can sometimes be better to stay in the air for a little longer to reach a higher standard of medical care than just drop in to the nearest airport - the medical equipment on board most airlines and the high standard of cabin crew training can mean the unwell passenger has access to a higher standard of medical care on board than in some locations on the ground. As I said, this is not a comment on this specific case but a general observation in the light of hardhatter's question.

[wiggy]

Humble SLF with a question for cabin crew......At what point, if at all, would the decision be made to land at the nearest available airport as soon as possible, instead of diverting to the nearest airport with the best medical assistance?

That's not a question that should be aimed at Cabin crew since they don't make the decision to divert. If the Medical Professionals on the ground think a diversion is the best option in their opinion they'll discuss it with the pilots, but the decision to divert or not ultimately rests with the Captain.