BA 777 nosecone breaks at LHR
 

Friend of mine due off LHR at 1455 on BAW9 finds himself and wife still sitting in the lounge at 1715 while the 777 is towed away and a new plane ordered. New departure time is 2000 or later. Apparently the nosecone is broken... How unusual is that?

" while the 777 is towed away and a new plane ordered" Bloody hell Boeing must be 'on the ball'

Talk about the 'throw-away society' :hmm:

liteswap I'd say: Very unusual. As you may know, the nose cone is not made of metal, as it houses the radar. It is possible that it received a light blow from a bird that caused a crack to appear and then it would need to be replaced. Not a serious problem but more than enough to ground the machine.

The 'old plane' is having its radome replaced and is due to operate the BA245 to EZE tonight (G-YMMD).


Tonight's BA9 is now being operated by G-YMMB which had just arrived from BKK and was turned around as quickly as possible. This aircraft was originally meant to operate the BA245 so in essence it is a 1-4-1 swap. It does mean that in all probability, tomorrow's BA245 will also be delayed as the BKK flight tonight was late leaving LHR.


There isn't much slack in the 3-class 777 fleet at the moment. LGW have 2 aircraft based there (1 was AOG yesterday) and G-YMMF is in maintenance at Cardiff. There aren't many opportunities for tail swaps if there is a technical problem.


Hope they enjoy the flight nonetheless!


Champ

To remove the rotational delay to the BA245 caused by the delay to yesterday's BKK flight, tonight's BA245 is scheduled to be operated by a 777-300ER (G-STBG at the moment). A nice little upgrade!


Champ

So to get the damaged aircraft flying again, are BA most likely to have:

1. Had a radome in stock?
2. Cannabalised one from the aircraft undergoing maintenance in Wales?
3. Bought one from Boeing or the radome manufacturer?
4. Fixed the damaged one?
5. Used one from G-YMMM?

Answer is most probably 1
Bear in mind that these are fairly large and fragile items and getting it to where you can change it ( Hangar with available crane ) can cause problems in the supply chain, so a radome change would probably take something like 8 hours to acomplish.................. a lot more than that if there are additional problems such as towing issues .

Blimey we change them on the ramp, 2 hours at the most! Hangar/crane what are they!
They're not that fragile, but a bird at 200mph will damage it!

All well and good so long as you can get the Radome in the box onto the Ramp..... and the windspeed is sufficiently low !

Airbus / 737 is small enough to manhandle but 777 is a large item

Mixture of 1/2 actually:


-Aircraft was towed back to Engineering
-Radome removed from G-YMMO which is in maintenance for a different issue
-Fitted to G-YMMD and towed back out to operate last night's BA245
-Radome then robbed from G-YMMI to fit on G-YMMO
-New radome to be fitted to G-YMMI


Champ

Ah the good old robbery roundabout. This could run and run. :) O/T all round. :D

Thanks for the 'behind the scenes' info.

The staff at EZE will be happy!


They've been begging for a 777-300 for years! Pity they won't be able to sell the first class seats though, perhaps 14 lucky club pax will get a more comfy flight.