xl airways chaos

[Rainboe]

Robo- maybe you're right. But the headline does the damage, and it seems hard to attach the name of a company to a word like that. Much as BA seems to have taken personally complete blame for the recent severe fog and years of paralysis and dreadful under-investment in British Airport infrastructure (ie- you want more flow rate in foggy weather? Where are the runways that should have been built 20 years ago?)

[robo283]

Fair point, Rainboe, but BA has historically had a huge amount of clout on the UK scene, whereas XL and all the other 'independents' have largely been dictated to. BA through its predecessor companies BEA and BOAC managed to hamstring the aircraft manufacturing industry in this company by altering the specifications on basically sound aircraft e.g. Trident and VC10, so that they were unattractive to overseas buyers. At least BA has met its match in the weather

[uggy]

Aircraft departed Sanford with with left aft fuel pump u/s. Subsequently the left forward fuel pump failed. Diverted into St Johns and landed with a fuel imbalance of 3500 kgs.
Fantastic ground handling considering it was Christmas Eve.
All crew handled the situation professionally.

[Rainboe]

So an absolutely valid and correct decision by the pilots to make a tech stop! Throw in the usual press shock horror "Mrs. Bloggins was unable to get her underwear changed for 24 hours and her little Jimmy couldn't have his Nintendo from her suitcase for a while" and you have the sad makings of a headline at Christmas!
Well done the crew, well done the passengers who stoically underwent the 'ordeal'- once again, as in President Blair's near 'escape from death in Miami on his way to bunk off yet another celeb pal', the press makes a disgraceful spectacle of itself.