BAW 8 1/10/2023

[Sneezy24]

Does anyone know why this flight from Haneda to Heathrow diverted to Anchorage, then onto Toronto where it appears to still be?

JUst interested as I was supposed to be on the flight but had to cancel a holiday in Japan due to illness!

[Hartington]

My guess would be that the 2nd diversion was crew duty hours related. After 4? hours in Anchorage the crew would not be "legal" to fly back to London. BA don't keep crews in Anchorage so they needed to go somewhere with a spare crew to take the plane home. Quite an ordeal for the pax.

[Sneezy24]

Thanks,

Glad I wasn't on it!

The aircraft is back at EGLL now and is off to Haneda later, so nothing nasty to fix I assume.

[24138]

Yes I can tell you as I was a passenger on this flight. An iPhone got trapped in Club Class Business seat and started smoking, we were approaching the Artic Circle and as the phone could not be removed from the seat the Captain was concerned it could become a fire, so we made a 1.5 detour to Anchorage where US Immigration would not allow us to deplane, and as the crew would not have enough hours to reach LHR after being 2 hours on the ground whilst the phone was removed were sent to Toronto and I transferred to the 18.30 to LHR. It was a very long day!

[wiggy]

My guess would be that the 2nd diversion was crew duty hours related. After 4? hours in Anchorage the crew would not be "legal" to fly back to London. BA don't keep crews in Anchorage so they needed to go somewhere with a spare crew to take the plane home. Quite an ordeal for the pax.

This is going to come over as being overly nit picky, sorry, but given the sub-forum we are in it it might be worth mentioning that (unless things have changed) BA like many airlines don't have spare crews or spare crew members sitting around down route. It sometimes became apparent during down-route disruption when I was flying that some of the public did sometimes assume there were..hence the nit-pick.

That said I'd agree what you suggest in terms of crewing is possible; I think Toronto is currently a BA T7 destination so yes, I'd guess that whilst unusual some fast re-assigning/shuffling of duties of crew already on slip in Toronto might have been done to get the HND passengers through to London.

Be interesting to get the actual story.

Edited to add: Here is a story of a BA 78& having to divert to Anchorage earlier this year:

https://onemileatatime.com/news/british-airways-787-anchorage/

[S.o.S.]

Thank you 24138 for stopping by and giving us the full detail. Most interesting and a good cautionary tale for pax to keep their smartphones in a safe pocket or firm storage.

[wiggy]

24318 - thanks from me as well...(for some reason I missed your post when commenting earlier).

[Sneezy24]

Thanks for the update - just glad I was ill! (not really, as I was going to be in Japan to see my son - not seen him since pre-covid, and we were going to the Japanese GP together...)

[S.o.S.]

wiggy you would have missed 24318's comment earlier as it was not yet showing. Whilst 24318 has been part of PPRuNe since 2013, the first ten posts of anyone new are checked before being seen in the forum.

24318 You are most welcome in the Cabin.

[SpringHeeledJack]

An iPhone got trapped in Club Class Business seat and started smoking, we were approaching the Artic Circle and as the phone could not be removed from the seat the Captain was concerned it could become a fire, so we made a 1.5 detour to Anchorage where US Immigration would not allow us to deplane, and as the crew would not have enough hours to reach LHR after being 2 hours on the ground whilst the phone was removed were sent to Toronto and I transferred to the 18.30 to LHR. It was a very long day!

Would it not be beyond BA, in this case, but to ALL the airlines to make a re-design of the seating to block access/ingress of our mini-computers ? It just seems that in the last few years the number of such incidents both similar or lesser have occurred the world over. I appreciate that these Business and First seats are both expensive and complex, but there must be a relatively simple retrofit solution that would allow full function of the seat whilst preventing smartphone incidents.

[Mr Mac]

SHJ
I have an EK flight where a similar thing happened some years ago coming up from SE Asia and ended up in India. Now on videos on briefings on many carriers especially about not moving your seat when phone lost.

Cheers
Mr Mac

[PAXboy]

My cynical guess is that - until the cost of these events reaches a certain point - they will allow it to continue. It is also possible that seat designers are now trying to accomodate this problem in the next generation of seats,

[Kiltrash]

On our last flight from Rome the young ( unfortunate) lady next no me dropped her power bank...there was however a pleasant resounding THUD as it hit the floor .. panic over ...

[S.o.S.]

I find that my phone slides very neatly between my car seat and the central tunnel. Usually, this requires, getting out of the car to fish underneath the seat - depending on the whim of the phone. Sometimes, a pair of tongs are borrowed from the kitchen. Of course, it may decided that it is happy to stay in (what it must consider the sweet spot) where it cannot be reached from any direction without being poked with a long thin carving knife. This will normally happen when I have the least time available and must be getting on my way. I know, 21st Century problems.... :rolleyes:

[Saintsman]

I find that my phone slides very neatly between my car seat and the central tunnel. Usually, this requires, getting out of the car to fish underneath the seat - depending on the whim of the phone. Sometimes, a pair of tongs are borrowed from the kitchen. Of course, it may decided that it is happy to stay in (what it must consider the sweet spot) where it cannot be reached from any direction without being poked with a long thin carving knife. This will normally happen when I have the least time available and must be getting on my way. I know, 21st Century problems....

I‘m sure you’re not advocating aircraft are equipped with carving knives…. ;)

[S.o.S.]

Carving knives? Aah, those were the good old days ...

[redsnail]

We have fairly decent knives on board. If all else fails, a crash axe. :D

[PAXboy]

That's why security should let me bring my Leatherman combination pocket tool into the cabin... :E