A380 into Oakland

[llondel]

That's new. Either Lufthansa is operating an A380 to Oakland or the one that normally lands at SFO got diverted. I just saw it on finals coming down into Oakland, just after 1pm local time.

Can't see a reason anywhere, I would assume something happened at SFO?

ETA: FlightAware suggests DLH454 made an attempt at SFO and then changed its mind and came into Oakland instead. It landed from the north, so I wonder if the wind at SFO was outside limits (too much tailwind?)

[treadigraph]

Looking at FR24 replay, it seems to have gone round at San Fran, then held to the SW of the airport for an orbit before diverting to Oakland. SFO seems to be operating OK, so presumably a tech problem. AF A380 landed at SFO a little while later.

[llondel]

I'm intrigued to know the reason for the divert because I would assume all the resources for fixing an A380 are at SFO. I've not flown via Oakland before so I wonder how that will exercise immigration, customs, and baggage claim, having that many people to process like that, probably with zero notice. Then they've got to transport most of them to SFO. At least traffic isn't too bad at the moment.

[treadigraph]

Looks like they are going to be really exercised at Oakland - an Emirates A380 has just landed there too!

I assume Oakland is suitable for Code F aircraft operations? I know Gatwick and Heathrow needed work to ensure wingtip clearance on some taxiways.

[llondel]

The LH aircraft is now at SFO, interesting little route it flew, south out of Oakland, a big loop around the bay and landed on runway 19 (presumably L, being the longer of the two) another first for me, I've never seen one land that way, traffic is usually all coming in on 28 with departures on 1 or 28.

[Need to Know Basis]

Norwegian has been flying the B787 into OAK for months as normal UK-Scandi into OAK scheduled flights for months........why the excitement ? I though OAK was closer to downtown than SFO ?

[Hotel Tango]

I don't see the significance of your post. How does a B787 scheduled service compare to a couple of A380 diversions? No reason why OAK can't handle A380s, but they are not exactly common visitors to that airport.

[llondel]

Not sure why they diverted, unless they turned up just as SFO was reconfiguring for a change of runway and didn't have enough fuel to stick around for it. Checking later, SFO was landing on 19 and departing on 10. I noticed on the flight tracker for the repositioning flight that the 11 mile hop took 90 track miles.

I wonder if they hauled in extra fire cover - I know San Jose gets the local fire department on alert if a 747 is scheduled to land.

[treadigraph]

Maybe all the Code F stands were occupied for some reason, but the AF made it in OK. I think the EK went straight in to OAK, then was sitting in a holding area by the threshold of 30, last I looked.

NKB, take a look at a map of the Bay area and see where SFO and OAK are compared to the city. I've hopped between the two in a taxi and it's a fair drive in early evening traffic.