BMI diversion causes a stir in Irish media
 

From todays Irish Independent:

PASSENGERS on board a BMI plane told yesterday how they feared for their lives when their flight from London to Dublin unexpectedly diverted to Shannon without explanation.

One man's wife told how after he phoned her on his mobile she feared she would never see him again.

Frightened passengers were not told that a system for guiding planes in poor conditions known as an Instrument Landing System (ILS) was out of action at Dublin airport due to upgrade work. The system has not been working for the past two weeks and is expected to be out of action for a further two weeks.

However, the Irish Aviation Authority said yesterday an alternative system was available to pilots although this was not used by the pilot of the flight.

The British airline BMI has now launched an investigation into the incident.

The airline apologised to passengers after hearing how many of them feared for their lives when the aircraft halted its descent into Dublin and became airborne again without those on board being told what was happening.

In total, passengers spent almost five hours on flight BD131 from Heathrow to Dublin - which had been due to arrive at 7.05pm, but due to the diversion to Shannon did not finally touch down in Dublin until 10.38pm.

Shaken passengers on the Wednesday night flight recounted how they were only offered an explanation as to what had happened after the aircraft had landed at Shannon and been sitting on the runway for about 30 minutes.

A spokeswoman for BMI said there had been heavy rain and poor visibility at Dublin on Wednesday evening and the pilot had been unable to rely on an instrument landing system at the airport which is usually relied on in cloudy or poor weather conditions.

The spokeswoman said the ILS was not working on the runway and when the pilot realised he could not use this approach he opted, in the interests of safety, to divert to Shannon. It appears the BMI pilot had descended to a height of 600ft but still found that there was thick cloud below him, making visibility poor.

Blackrock businessman Donal Prior (43), who was on board the BMI flight, spoke of his concern about the lack of information. His wife Deirdre said although he had sounded calm when he phoned her from Shannon he later told her how at one stage he feared he would not see her and their four children again.

He told RTE's 'Liveline' show that when passengers asked cabin crew what was happening and why they were going to Shannon they were told the crew were as much in the dark as the passengers.

Mrs Prior said because of the climate post 9/11 she had been very concerned for her husband's safety. "I quite honestly thought this is the last time I'm going to talk to this guy.".

goodness gracious... people really are getting jumpy. That in itself is scary.

the rest of us got in.....may the vor plate fell down between some panels?!! i jest.
I do recall many moons ago a plate fell down the back of the wx radar on a 732 going into TFS. The capt pulled the radar out (the old scope type) and retreived plate but they could push the radar back into its place which impeded full throttle movement. They got the sh@te scared out of em but landed ok. True story.

30mins on rwy at SNN sounds odd... stands all occupied at this time of year?

I think "runway" is Irish media-speak for anywhere an aircraft might be at an airport, including the ramp - a bit like the way "warplane" is used for any military aircraft, transports and trainers included (especially if associated with the USA or Israel).

didn't know things in Shannon were so bad that Dublin folk would fear for their lives

Just another daft journalist that is not the least interested in anything to do with real facts.
They made a go-around and the guys have been hardworking up front and so what?? - happens all over the world every day! :hmm:

And the little scared one afraid of flying in the first place, is obvious the best to tell the horror story

Think we all would be more safe without daft journalists who will not let real life get in the way of a good scandal that can scare the rest of the population for no reason :ugh:

WX Diversion
 

If the wx was on limits without the ILS before setting off would the company policy be that before the approach is made a cabin annoucement be made that due to the wx we may have to divert??

I don't think this is anything new. But I agree it is scary to see how many people walk onto aircraft convinced that they are about to die on board. The slightest thing happens, they then know that their fears are being realised.

Bad form though, app 4 hrs without explanation to pax (if report true!)
Perhaps Aer Lingus pilots can't fly & operate cabin intercom at same time?
In an unfolding emergency, I am happy that informing the pax of a 'technical problem/diversion' is last on the check list, but no news 30min after landing... perhaps the pax were worried Mo'L had taken over.

similar scenario to myself when I flew to Zakynthos in May.

Two late aborted approaches due to fog and a divert to Athens. Captain only told us what was happening after the 2nd failed approach, but to folk like myself I had a good idea while others began to panic.

After 90mins on thr tarmac at Athens, we flew out for another attempt as the weather was clearing - same again though - low cloud cover. Back to Athens again, crew out of hours, disembarked and spent 6 hours in a holding lounge while another crew flew over and the weather cleared. Didnt make the news.

liffy, point taken but if they weren't disembarked for 30mins it's still odd - having recently flown into SNN I can attest that it's hardly a long taxi :D

Awww pleeaaase!

It was a BMI flight.

A storm in a teacup methinks. People have been watching too many "Seconds from Utter Annihilation" type programmes on TV. :ugh:

sr

Not all red top types are tabloids... IMHO the indo broadsheet falls into this "category" ...

Otherwise, if the ILS at DUB was u/s surely it was NOTAMS - unless it was a sudden failure? Maybe a/c failure?

Reported 4 hrs & no notice is not good though...

I don't care whether they could have made a VOR appr or whatever, it's actually irrelevant to the matter concerned. The KEY factor here, which only one poster above has mentioned, was the apparent lack of information from up front. I'm an aviation person and an experienced pax, however, in circumstances such as a go-around, extended holding, diversion, I too would appreciate just a little word from the front as to what is going on. I can well sympathise that in the absence of any PA from the FD, in today's climate, many passengers may allow their imaginations to run wild.

I suppose if the carrier was from an "unsavoury" part of the world, the crew would have carried on with the approach and stuffed it up. That would give the journos something to write about.

ILS u/s, below limits, divert....... is there a problem really??

Unless I have missed a trick here. The lack of announcement from the Captain to the pax(and by the sound of it cabin crew) until arrival in SNN is truly appalling. A go around and divn is nothing unusual to any aviator and am sure it was flown and carried out in a professional manner. However as a trainer, in my company I would have failed the Captain on a line check for his lack of communication to pax and cabin crew alike. Unless of course his lack of action can be justified and I cant think of a reason following a NORMAL go around and divn.

As usual, people are jumping down the throats of the crew without knowing what really happened. Based on a (hardly reliable) passenger's account of events, you have all decided that the crew made an enormous mistake by not doing a PA to the pax. Now I'm not saying that they did everything correctly, and maybe they did have the time and capacity to make a PA, but the fact of the matter is that unless you were one of the flight crew on that flight, you don't know what the real situation was, so how can you possibly pass judgement?

PW

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/liveline/ Click on Thursdays Show.

This is the show in question. The BMI incident is at the beginning, and comes back to it at about the 50th minute and 1min 14 min 50 sec. This is the same show that covered the Ryanair "first aid Kit" event. Not a very objective presenter sometimes.

Quote of the show, Pax talking about calling wife on the ground in SNN after diverting, wife says "I thought it was the last time I was ever going to speak to him alive!" :rolleyes:

Pax "I want to know why the Pilot missed the runway?"