Air New Zealand return to LHR 3rd Nov ?
 

Did anyone else hear an Air New Zealand aircraft at about 2230z on Monday 3rd Nov, somewhere over North Sea (REDFA area I think), dumping fuel and then telling London that they would be depressurising the cabin, and requested slow descent for their return to land at LHR ?

Just curious to know what the problem was, understand about the need to reduce landing weight for the return, but depressurising the cabin seemed a bit unusual .......

This would have been the NZ038 LHR-HKG-AKL.

There is a NZ038D due out at 1400L this afternoon, presumably related?

I was on board. Fairly uneventful take off and climb-out, although captain stopped climb at about 8000ft. Did a few lazy racetracks over the North Sea to dump fuel and then returned to LHR at about 2315Z. Announcements kept us informed of progress and reasons for return. All very good. Packed off for a night in airport hotels. According to the letter I recieved from the airline this morning it was "...due to a problem with a faulty switch on the cargo door". The letter goes on to say that the "...engineering team were recitfying the problem, however, the flight deck crew unfortunately would have gone over their duty limitation hours if the flight had departed last night". The new flight number is NZ6838 (showing on the boards here in T1 as NZ038D) due to leave at 1400, arriving Hong Kong 0930 (5th Nov) before departing for Auckland at 1115 arriving 0300 (06th Nov). That said, the screens have just gone from saying "Gate opens 12:30" to the dreaded "Please Wait". :-(

1. A question with relevant information

2. More relevant info

3. A relevant, informed answer.

I love it!:ok::D

All good stuff - so why was 3. so loathe to reveal original identity?

Why sign up an alt. address to make the post? Odd. Never mind - irrelevant to the original question.

Airport lounge - WiFi. Possibility of sign in being overlooked? Seems fairly sensible.

To the original post...

Why the depressurisation? Presumably to take any strain off a potentially faulty door.

But why the slow descent?

It would be indecent not to:rolleyes:

Really though, once depressurised the cabin altitude will be that of the aircraft. Human physiology considerations would suggest least discomfort with a slow descent at say 300-500 fpm, which is what the pressurisation controllers will schedule in a normal flight. The pilots would try to mimic that rate for passenger comfort.

Dunno what you mean about "alt" address - this is my first post. Long time reader, first time poster.

Was just trying to provide some useful info. Not everything is a conspiricy or has an ulteria motive. Stop trying to read more into every post than is actually there.

Yours, waiting at gate 52...

Hope you get off soon....! Good on ya for some decent info.

As an aside, I read elsewhere that NZ are going to park at least 1 744 soon?