United 777
 

United 777 seen in CBR this morning. Any ideas why it's here?

I am sure the US would not allow entry of passengers at one of their domestic only airports and would have left people on board in the same manner and would have rejected crew criticism..
I am sure soap and toilet paper and food and drink however would have been allowed to cross the immigration barrier to the plane so failure to ensure that it was not in the toilets would seem to be an airline fault.

Lucky they weren't arrested and thrown into gaol, as a young Australian was in the US some time ago. IIRC she didn't realise that a tech stop for fuel qualified as her entry date into the U.S., and was subsequently arrested for overstaying her visa.

250 pax roaming around the RAAF apron, last time we went in the CJ, we had MP's at the door waiting for us to leave

one passenger should have just complained about chest pains & then they could have got off.

There is something very wrong with the system if this is the best the airline involved could come up with.
I'm sure there will be a few American passengers on the phone to their lawyers...and probably rightly so on this occasion.

Would be interested to hear your solution ozbiggles!

Oh please, what exactly was the pain and suffering here? The passengers could stay on the plane in their seat if they wanted to, or they had the option for a walk in some gorgeous sunny Australian weather. It was sunny and about 15 degrees - perhaps a bit chilly if you didn't have a jumper, but still a bit warmer than the point of departure.

They were provided food and although the line-up behind the food truck is a bit comical, it's hardly pain and suffering. I'm sure people who physically needed to be brought food in the plane would have been provided it.

The airline apparently had spare pilots in Sydney and got them to Canberra as quickly as might be imagined in such a scenario. If they didn't have this option they would have needed to charter Qantas or Virgin planes to fly them back to Sydney anyway, right, given that Canberra isn't a port of entry? How much extra delay would that have added? It would have separated them from their baggage too.

What exactly would you propose they do differently?

Maybe divert domestic flights and keep the available runway for internationals?
That would at least solve the customs/immigration and quarantine problems.
Oh I forgot. The "suits" woudn't like the inconvenience.
Wunwing

Backward Australia
 

Amazing.......... If you do not have Customs at the National Capital of your country divert a domestic 767 there and let the 777 land at the International Airport.
Imagine no customs at Washington, Even the Congo have customs at the Capital.


Backward, Backward, Backward but think your the world leader in everything.

No domestic B767s here anymore. All in the desert.
Wunwing

Exactly what 4 holer said.
What sort of backward hillbilly country do we live in that has a national capital without customs.
As the aircraft diverted because it was low on fuel caused by a drama in Sydney it is covered by the ICAO laws which we are a signatory to.
So what the crew is out of hours so cant fly..now they cant rest as they cant go to a hotel at Hickville southern hemisphere has no customs unless your a politician.
Good luck solving this one.
I would imaging relief crew would be unable to board as they are in Australia and the aircraft technically isnt as are the pax and crew and god knows we cant mix them with us!
Welcome to Australia the worlds most backward advanced country!

A Qantas A330 then, AUS is an Island though and these things happen with locals and Island mentality ???

I once was on a B747 crew that diverted to Adelaide when it was purely domestic, due to East Coast going to fog.

Federal Police wouldnt let me off.Customs was supplied from the docks and when they arrived they would not let me (the FE) off the aircraft either . As I was the only person on the airport who was authorised to fuel a B747 this was now a problem as we were rapidly running out of hours.No one would make a decision until they could call Canberra at 9AM.I pointed out that if they had to fly in someone to refuel our aircraft we were going to be there for a very long while and anyway I still had to do my walkaround.No answer.
Eventually someone in Canberra was found and we made it to Sydney right on our 16 hours.I wanted to refuse and get off in ADL just to make them look like fools but the others talked me out of it.

Next day I got a rocket from my boss because I "refused" to fuel the aircraft at ADL. Bit hard to refuel from the flightdeck.No one at Mascot would initially believe our story but it happened. Looks like 35 years on, nothing has changed.

Wunwing

Why the hell didn't he choose MEL where they have full customs and immigration facilities? Most other International carriers do:ugh:

I suspect that they didn't have enough fuel for anywhere but Canberra.
Wunwing

And Melbourne had delays

Forget the reason for the delay or the airline - it is embarrassing that our national capital can't handle this situation. Welcome to Australia indeed - how third rate do we look as a nation?

This isn't the first diversion to CBR and I suspect it won't be the last.

If there are no scheduled Intl ops into CBR how can they be expected to proved CIQ coverage for these one a month events?

There must be some pre-planning that could go into such events however to make it a little easier next time.