US immigration during technical stop
 

Hello all,
i have a brief question on current US imigration policy during an unscheduled technical stop.

The situation is as follows: a twin-jet going from Frankfurt, Germany to the easten seaboard. Due to a lower than usual flight level issued by Shanwick, we need to refuel before reaching our destination. If we'd have to land in let's say Boston before going further down, would our pax have to clear US immigrations first and would we be considered a domestic flight on the final leg? I know that during unscheduled stops in the US they check the manifest against the nofly list, even when you fly onwards to a non-US destination, but how if you fly to the US anyways?

Any pointers to the applicable legislation or FAA/TSA/whatever regs would be very much appreciated.

Salina :-)
WSSS

did they get off of the airplane?



searching...

well, it is a hypothetical question, because we decided to set down in Gander after we were realized that we did not know if landing in the US would increase our delay due to debording, immigrations and reboarding. Nevertheless, it would be nice to know, how the US would have handled us, if we ha decided to stop there.

SC
WSSS

Its happened to me before, once the pax remain onboard you continue your journey and clear at your destination. However once we were on a Caribbean to Canada flight and had to make a refueling stop at JFK, while at the stop the gov. realized there was a wanted man on the flight, he was off loaded and arrested, we then continued to YYZ.

At one time the rule in the USA was clearence would be carried out at 'First Port of Call' regardless. Was pax in a DC10-10 once and we had to land at Halifax so we were all cleared at Halifax and continued as a domestic to LAX.

Last time I looked, Halifax was in Canada:bored:

thank you very much for all the replies so far. To me that looks as if it depends on cirrcumstances and maybe the airport where you set down since there seems to be no consenous here (nor anywhere else i searched for an answer).

Maybe i should give the guys at the DHS a call, they should know (i hope).

Thanks again.

Salina Chan
WSSS

Oh buggah!!!:\ Yes, probably somewhere else up in the frozen north but inside the USA, it was in 1979/80 and I claim the old age allowance!

The general rule in the US is that you clear at first airport. However, in certain cases e.g. Bangor, they will give you a permit to continue to destination. That said if you are coming from Europe, it is generally less of a hassle to land on the Canadian side (YQX, YYR, YHZ etc), and continue. The further inland you go into the US the higher the hassle factor. BGR are pretty used to this kind of traffic and know the procedure.
Don´t expect same further down the line. :ugh: