DAL 1 Heathrow return 13 Sept 2016

[Hants Eaglet]

DAL 1, a B767 EGLL-KJFK returned to Heathrow pretty smartish this morning after doing 3 big orbits at 4000ft in the Bracknell-Camberley area (Heathrow on easterlies), making a very ominous droning noise. Landed safely according to FR24, Heathrow Director left a big gap behind it just in case. Anybody know what happened? Big jets circling over my house making ominous noises makes me a bit nervous!

[chaps1954]

Could it be they lost electric power and used the ram generator because that makes a lot of noise

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

It's being discussed at length in the aircrew pages.

[Hants Eaglet]

Thanks for that. I've looked at a video on Youtube which had a deployed RAT noise on a test flight, but couldn't decide if it resembled the 1000 bomber raid noise the thing was emitting. I got some video on my DSLR so will upload it when I get the time to have another look. The other forum suggests bird strike and engine damage, which is what crossed my mind at the time. I'm sure all will be revealed in due course. Didn't fancy the plane dropping into Sandhurst on its tour of Berks! Listened out on 120.4 and 118.7 but I guess it was transferred to a discrete freq and I can never work out how to get the scanner bit of my Vertex handheld transceiver to operate. Glad they landed ok, no evening drinks on Fifth Ave for the pax tonight though.