BA 777 nosecone breaks at LHR

[liteswap]

Friend of mine due off LHR at 1455 on BAW9 finds himself and wife still sitting in the lounge at 1715 while the 777 is towed away and a new plane ordered. New departure time is 2000 or later. Apparently the nosecone is broken... How unusual is that?

[dazdaz1]

" while the 777 is towed away and a new plane ordered" Bloody hell Boeing must be 'on the ball'

[PAXboy]

Talk about the 'throw-away society' :hmm:

liteswap I'd say: Very unusual. As you may know, the nose cone is not made of metal, as it houses the radar. It is possible that it received a light blow from a bird that caused a crack to appear and then it would need to be replaced. Not a serious problem but more than enough to ground the machine.

[champair79]

The 'old plane' is having its radome replaced and is due to operate the BA245 to EZE tonight (G-YMMD).


Tonight's BA9 is now being operated by G-YMMB which had just arrived from BKK and was turned around as quickly as possible. This aircraft was originally meant to operate the BA245 so in essence it is a 1-4-1 swap. It does mean that in all probability, tomorrow's BA245 will also be delayed as the BKK flight tonight was late leaving LHR.


There isn't much slack in the 3-class 777 fleet at the moment. LGW have 2 aircraft based there (1 was AOG yesterday) and G-YMMF is in maintenance at Cardiff. There aren't many opportunities for tail swaps if there is a technical problem.


Hope they enjoy the flight nonetheless!


Champ

[champair79]

To remove the rotational delay to the BA245 caused by the delay to yesterday's BKK flight, tonight's BA245 is scheduled to be operated by a 777-300ER (G-STBG at the moment). A nice little upgrade!


Champ

[Mechta]

So to get the damaged aircraft flying again, are BA most likely to have:


Had a radome in stock?
Cannabalised one from the aircraft undergoing maintenance in Wales?
Bought one from Boeing or the radome manufacturer?
Fixed the damaged one?
Used one from G-YMMM?

[Blink182]

Answer is most probably 1
Bear in mind that these are fairly large and fragile items and getting it to where you can change it ( Hangar with available crane ) can cause problems in the supply chain, so a radome change would probably take something like 8 hours to acomplish.................. a lot more than that if there are additional problems such as towing issues .

[spannersatcx]

Blimey we change them on the ramp, 2 hours at the most! Hangar/crane what are they!
They're not that fragile, but a bird at 200mph will damage it!

[Blink182]

All well and good so long as you can get the Radome in the box onto the Ramp..... and the windspeed is sufficiently low !

Airbus / 737 is small enough to manhandle but 777 is a large item

[champair79]

Mixture of 1/2 actually:


-Aircraft was towed back to Engineering
-Radome removed from G-YMMO which is in maintenance for a different issue
-Fitted to G-YMMD and towed back out to operate last night's BA245
-Radome then robbed from G-YMMI to fit on G-YMMO
-New radome to be fitted to G-YMMI


Champ

[TURIN]

Ah the good old robbery roundabout. This could run and run. :) O/T all round. :D

[liteswap]

Thanks for the 'behind the scenes' info.

[Wirbelsturm]

The staff at EZE will be happy!


They've been begging for a 777-300 for years! Pity they won't be able to sell the first class seats though, perhaps 14 lucky club pax will get a more comfy flight.