China Southern (CZ8170) Diversion
 

Interesting tracking on FR24 at the moment. Looks like a fairly serious diversion underway?

Well it was looking like a normal diversion and lurking around Katherine to possibly burn off fuel and as such relatively unremarkable.

But I just looked again and it’s buggered off northbound? After a 30 minute loop south of Darwin...odd.

Possibly a problem with clearance to enter Indonesian airspace ? They can be quite difficult if the paperwork isn’t correct.

After an hour and a quarter 'diversion' I wonder how their fuel reserves were in Shenzen….?

Any surprises?

Yet the Indon’s allowed MH 70 to fly through their airspace un intercepted with no clearance and no comms. Interesting.

International airlines are carrying heaps of gas where feasible at the moment to avoid diversions - every diversion is a COVID handling nightmare.

For example diversion to Darwin = Howard Springs quarantine camp - they won't allow you to order beer in - how un-Australian is that! 🤣

Actually it's now very Aussie under our new totalitarian nanny state.🤮

Has anyone heard the ATC transcript if it’s available.

Anything could have been going on such as a potential medical emergency or an abnormal that the crew may have been able to resolve. All pure speculation of course.

Plenty of suitable enroute alternates available if fuel was an issue later on in the flight.

Since that incident they have tightened up and have intercepted aircraft without proper clearance and even made an Ethiopian Airlines freighter enroute to Singapore land in Indonesia because it lacked overflight permission.

Don't be a smart Alec.

Why wouldn’t they just go into Darwin. The initial ‘diversion’ track looked like they were heading for Broome or Port Headland!

Weather at Darwin was crap at the time, torrential rain and thunderstorms! That’s why I was still awake looking at Flight Radar.

Capt - it's Port Hedland actually...:)

It's in WA! Who cares! :E

Capt was probably asleep and FO chose the wrong way. Nothing to see here

Weather radar misinterpretation the likely cause. Interpretation being part art & part science, most PRC crew have only figured out the latter part. It can't be rote learnt.

I thought they didn’t use it?

I believe the crew were contemplating diverting to Kununurra to seek political asylum, and spend their days flying Bungle Bungle flights for Alligator Airways in a C207.

The crew then decided that they couldn’t sit around the caravan park, sinking green cans while hoping to get a flying gig this dry season. They also come to the conclusion, better to live in China than under the McGowan dictatorship in WA.
The first Officer was also concerned, that he may not have enough experience to convert onto the heavy single C207.

Generally they don't (its cancer inducing apparently). Perhaps a lighting flash through a gap in the protective newspapers inside the windscreen caught their attention & warranted turning it on.

Stationair 8, GOLD :ok:

A diversion in CSA is a committee led process. Nobody in the aircraft will actually make a decision for fear of doing the wrong thing, the right thing, or anything.

There will be sat phone calls and ACARS messages to some grand Pooh bah in CAN, (the hallowed DUTY MANAGER, what a misnomer) who will be equally (or most likely more so) clueless as to the technical, operational or commercial considerations at hand.

There will be a mad scramble to find some example of a similar issue in order to check if the managers and crew involved were lauded and had a movie made about them, or are still rotting in the salt mines. Meanwhile the hapless captain will choose to fly in circles waiting for a committee to decide his fate whilst his trusty FO strives for level 101 on some noisy pointless phone app. He’ll call the cabin crew to bring another jug of boiling water to the cockpit to add to the six already strewn on the floor.

The passengers might see the Airshow doing weird things but they won’t be told a thing.

And people wonder why their fares are so cheap...