FCA173/4 24hrs+ tech delay?

[Dazbo5]

Does anyone know what has happened to the First Choice 767 that was supposed to be operating the Goa flight on wednesday? I think the flight numbers are FCA173/4. I have a friend out there who was supposed to be flying back on the flight but the aircraft is grounded somewhere with a technical problem. They aren't being told much in resort so I thought I post a question on here on the off chance anyone has any information on what the delay is. They are all getting very stressed since they don't know what is going on.

Any info would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Darren

[groundbum]

did I get this right

okay, let me understand this.

Your friend is sitting in a hotel in GOA, hot, warm, beach, and cannot come home due to a broken plane. Presumably all the extra bills are paid for by the travel company.

I'm sitting in cold, wet, windy Malham with a ton of bedrooms to get ready in my B&B, with 2 staff taking the day off just like that, 1 running late cos she's helping her Dad, my car just jammed it's gearbox as wy wife decided to back up a hill to get out the way of a truck,

and your mate is stressed!

I wish there was a Star Trek type transporter type thingie to swap place with your mate RIGHT NOW!

[Dazbo5]

That is exactly what I said, chill and enjoy your extended holiday!! I think it's the not knowing that's the problem. They are getting zero information from the rep on what is happening. They've been put in one hotel for the night and being moved to another because of availability issues. I appreciate it must be a difficult to situation to manage for all parties, but they'd just like to know what's going on. People have cars in car parks at airports with parking permits expired, family picking them with and kids wondering where they and expected back at school etc

It happened to me, flight MYT055/6 on 21st March 2003. I'll never forget it! MYT sent their DC10-30 (G-BYDA) to pick us up from Dom Rep (La Romana), which then went on to Montego Bay to drop off/pick up before coming back to Manchester. During the flight between Dom Rep and Montego Bay, the aircraft developed a hydaulic problem so was grounded in Montego Bay. I beleive it took 2 weeks to repair the aircraft and it took 52 hours for them to send an A332 to bring us home. I loved it, expended my holiday from 14 days in Dom Rep to a 16 day twin centre! I loved phoning my boss to say I wouldn't be in work beacause I'm stranded in Jamaica, but for others who needed to get back, it was stressful and frustrating. We were kept updated so it wasn't too bad. They've been given conflicting information such as the aircraft is stranded in the Maldives etc. I just thought I'd post on here just on the off chance anyone might know something that I could feed back.

Thanks,

Darren

[_ShIfTy_]

Hey, The aircraft was stranded in Male. My parents boarded the 767 then were offloaded due to technical problems. They were told of a 24 hour delay after spending 6 hours in airport departure lounge. They were put up in a hotel over night while first choice positioned another aircraft into male to operate the flight back to Man. They arrived at Man just over 24 hours later.

[WHBM]

It is unfortunately one of the facts of life that if you book onto an airline who do a flight or two a week to take you into the sort of off-the-beaten-track destinations that people like to go on holiday to PRECISELY to get away from the industrialised world, then you do not have the luxury of a range of engineers licenced on type, a hangar full of spares, Boeing Product Support just down the road, and competent subcharter operators of widebodies you can turn to, that you get in London. If you want/need that reliability, go on holiday to Miami.

So even the airline may not know how they're going to handle it until someone gets there who can open it up, hopefully taking the right guess of likely spares with them, while you are improvising the fleet allocation. Actually I think getting a standby aircraft across two continents to pick them up in 24 hours was good going. Yes, communications can often be better.

By the way, I can't understand how a flight departing Goa on Wednesday, presumably arriving back in the UK Thursday, and delayed 24 hours, can impact on children returning to school I guess the following Monday.

[Dazbo5]

Thanks Shifty. I've found out it was G-DBLA that suffered the problem and it was G-PJLO that was sent to MLE before operating the Goa flight.

Darren

[RingwaySam]

I saw G-PJLO arrive this evening from Male operating as FCA767P. Wondered why it was positioning in from Male - Thanks for the info. It's departed since to Trivandrum I think.

Dazbo, check you're PMs. Long time no speak mate