After more than 40 years in the Industry, all over the World, I do have a rough idea of how things work. ;)

Just many on this thread were implying that this was almost an every day thing, thus my question. IF it happens that often then it is crazy scheduling, and upsetting for pax, crew and those pesky media people.

IF it is a fairly rare thing, well okay, the Company are taking a gamble.

Really? All evidence to the contrary! :E :}

Sorry, I forgot where I was posting and the idiots that lurk here. :mad:

airsupport - In ten years of flying the B747-400 on long haul, a lot of it trans Pacific, I had to divert only twice for fuel.

air support, I think you could paraphrase what everyone (or at least everyone who flys the line) is saying with: "Diversions are relatively infrequent, but when they do occur, for a half way competent crew, (which we'd like to think we all are!), they're usually a no sweat exercise."

The UA diversion into Brisbane certainly didn't rate the reports it was given in the Australian media.

Edited to add that I hadn't seen Keg's more than adequate reply saying more or less the same thing when I posted the message above.

airsupport, after 40 years in the aviation industry you didn't develop a sense of humour, a thick skin and the ability to work out when someone is kidding at your expense? :suspect: :}

I did actually, just it is very hard to tell here on PPRuNe. :ugh:

My sincere apologies IF that was the case with you. :ok:

For info, flights from the West Coast of continental USA have an agreed maximum of 10 minutes of traffic holding into Sydney.
ATC, and the airlines concerned, are well aware of the fuel requirements of these long haul flights and they are accorded a priority.
This is a nothing story. Next we'll be getting stories about the screech and smell of burning rubber as they landed.

Tool's
 

The Jouno tool's were hoping it would divert to Norfolk to make some really exciting news !
Journo's are like cockroaches and deserve nothing short of being squashed and trampled into oblivion.

Keg, I love you. Will you marry me? sorry I stink like Jet A1, but I've got some good claret!!!!

It's like the "emergency" landing into Sale a few weeks ago. Remember that article? The world practically stopped in Gippsland because a 737 landed there. What about the regular Envoy callsign that goes down to do circuits???

This would be hilarious if it weren't so pathetic... :}

You old women prattle on about "abyssmal journalism", yet you can't even agree amongst yourselves whether it was an emergency, a precaution, or good judgement on the crew's part. I only read the first two and a half pages of this thread before my eyes glazed over, but up until then we still didn't know if the aircraft landed with a tech issue or not, or whether it is still at YBBN or it continued on to YSSY that morning...:D

People in glass houses and all that...:*

One United 747/300 did lobb into Willie one night on way to SYD, and it certainly was out of gas. The poor ol RAAF were dumbfounded, bleating to QF to do something, who inturn got a crew out of bed and did a wingtip to wingtip. Now the press had a field day with that, not surprisingly. Also not surprisingly the crew were stood down, pending a inquiry. It was in the late eighties, and cannot remember the final result, but kept us all interested for days.:ouch:

Sunfish is just bitter and twisted, bit like the last aircraft he flew :eek:

Yeah Sunny, if I bent two 172s landing in benign conditions I'd have contempt for the good folk who do it seamlessly everyday too.

You patronize and post condescending remarks about aircrew, then polish it off with how bored you would have been it you had of pursued a professional flying career. Do you realize what the forum you are posting in is? Why do you continue to jaunt pprune if you have a complete disdain for aircrew and the airlines? Secretly you admire aircrew, love Qantas and wished you could have been a Qantas Pilot. It's just a pity in your heart you know you are ****house and can't fly really well no matter how much you hit the books and practice.

Get in, sit down, shut up and hang on :E

Did I mention shutup?

After the initial diversion, a second United 747 arrived in YBBN later in the day to pick up the pax (sent from YSSY, apparently). It departed that afternoon and the first 747 was towed to the old terminal area for repairs to the #4 engine. They spent Sunday fixing it and it departed for LAX late Sunday night.

FoxtrotAlpha18 - Don't see the point of your post. It has been made abundantly clear by the professionals contributing to this thread that the refuelling stop in BNE was a total non event and simply part of a recognised procedure that has been in place for years.

I did indeed send this particular article through to Mediawatch with a suggestion that they keep an eye on aviation journalism.

They thought it was a good idea, and obviously must have contacted that bastion of good journalism "news.com.au" as the picture has been removed from the website, but the text is still there.

I'd encourage forum participants to continue to forward this sort of rubbish to Mediawatch. It might actually provoke changes in the way the these "journalists" report aviation news.

Yes, it might be in some eyes 'abysmal reporting' but does anyone know the facts? The diversion reportedly was as a result of 'low fuel' and many have attributed this state to be a result of 'unforecast headwinds'. This may have been true but why did UAL keep the aircraft in BNE for a couple of days after the diversion?

Could the low fuel and unforecast winds be the result of a mechanical condition on the aircraft that caused an abnormal operation that led to low fuel and unforecast winds and the subsequent diversion? Perhaps it's best to not shoot the messenger, no matter how abysmal, until the facts are known rather than rely on 'facts' reported by some acne-ridden spin-doctor?

Diversions normal sometimes!!!
 

The UAL diversion was normal, but I was told the other day by an engineer that that a certain Asian carrier "x?" diverted into Brisbane the other day. Thay had flown 7:40 odd back of the clock, made two approaches to the Gold Coast and then diverted to Brisbane. Refueled went to the Gold Coast and made another four approaches.
Anyone who's interested can find out how rapidly the risk of an accident increases after two approaches let alone tired and two man crew as well. It may be inconvenient for customers sometimes, but when your operating heavy crew and at the edge of the range of the aeroplane as in UAL you expect to divert sometimes. If I was a journalist I would be FAR more interested in the other diversion and the possible ramifications of it..

I know that i'll get slammed for this but i'm going to defend some journo's! I work for one of the major media organisations in this country - no, i'm not a journo but i work alongside them. I agree that reporting on aviation issues can sometimes be misleading but i think that we need to put things into perspective. Firstly, most journo's probably don't know and don't need to know the difference between a 737-700 and a 737-800 nor a Boing 777 or an Airbus A346. Now, i know this will come as a great shock to most of you but it's no different to a bunch of trainspotters complaing that a journo got a Tangara train mixed up with Silverside (here in Sydney). Where i work, most journo's are working on 3 to 4 stories at one time and working to a deadline. If they get something wrong in the first version of their story, they will correct it when they are alerted to it. If you see that some info is wrong in a story, let them know. They'll appreciate it (at least where i work they will). Also, they could be working on a story at 2am, 5am etc so sometimes they're not able to get all the facts. Btw, the journo's where i work often check this forum (or me if i'm around now that they know i'm an aviation nut) however as someone else pointed out earlier on, there seems to be quite a bit of debate on this forum as to the exact cause of a certain incident.

Anyway, just my 2 cents worth and no, i don't work for news.com.au.