British Airways flight from London U.K. to Calgary diverted to Iqaluit
 

I've sure had Frobay as an ETOPS alternate a few times over the years but I've never had the pleasure of landing there.

Sounds like Speedbird One Yankee Charlie diverted for electrical or airconditioning fumes on the flight deck, shut down on runway 16-34, got checked out by Red One and the rest of the CFR crew. Restarted engines and taxied to the ramp to deplane the pax to the terminal. Speedbird called HQ in LHR to confirm the plan for deplaning. A pax requested medical assistance for arm and chest pain and paramedics were boarded prior to pax deplaning.

http://archive-server.liveatc.net/cy...2018-2300Z.mp3

Etops Nightmare, Smoke and fire!
 

All well that ends well. Good job BA.
Now for the recovery!

On a thread drift I would like to bring to attention the fact that Denmark is considering closing Bluie West 8 or formerly called Søndre Strømfjord.
For You long haul chaps with a northern route I think this has some consequences.
Mind You they are intending to expand two other airports on Greenland to 2000 meters first!

The thought of electric smoke and fire is a thing that does make me feel uncomfortable, to say the least.
Not to many options up there.
Regards
Cpt B

Should be interesting finding accommodation for everyone in that neck of the world!

Eh, no. Søndre Strømfjord, along with all other villages and places in Greenland, have had their Danish names replaced by Greenlandic ditto. Thus Søndre Strømfjord is now Kangerlussuaq. 'Bluie West 8' ceased to be in 1992, when the airport was handed over to Greenland for civilian use. Thus, the naming sequence is Bluie West 8 -> Søndre Strømfjord -> Kangerlussuaq. IATA code is SFJ, ICAO is BGSF - they weren't changed.

The plan is to extend the existing runways in Nuuk and Ilulissat to a lenght of 2200 meters, and construct a third airport from scratch in Qaqortoq, with a 1500 meter runaway. The future of Kangerlussuaq has not been finally settled, but the tentative plan is to reduce it to a heliport. There's hardly anybody living in or around Kangerlussuaq, which means most passengers flying to Greenland are only stopping there to transfer onto a domestic fixed- or rotary-wing service.to their intended destination.

I don't quite understand how a 2200 meter runway will be sufficient for an A330 doing the service to CPH; seems to be a bit on the short side.

SMT member
I am old git.
I have calibrated in Narsasuaq ( Bluie West 1) GodtHåb ( Nuuk) Søndre Strøm and Jacobshavn, in OY-NUK in 1994.
Great trip. I also flew for the Indians at Muskrat Dam in Ontario in 1992.
I see now that I was not politically correct,,,,,

Standard operation with a A330 into Nuuk with 2200 meters to CPH is OK, but it better be CAT3c.
As fare as N-1 on any diversion on a dark and stormy night, I would like to have Søndrestrøm still as an option.
But I cant say I have analysed it in detail, but if I go longhaul , I most certainly shall.
Regards
Cpt B

I am perfectly aware that fumes / electrical burning smell in the cockpit are an emergency (had it myself....), but why would you stop on the rwy right before an intersection and not turn off? Would take about 20 more seconds and if you *really* have a problem blocking the rwy especially at a remote location might not be the best idea.

Possibly they autolanded to a stop so that the aircraft would stay on centreline if view deteriorated?

Landed there in a chartered Hawaiian Airlines L1011 for fuel, out of Gatwick to SFO via Seattle, back in 1985?
We took turns sticking our noses out of the open door to get some fresh air.
Remote does not describe it!!!!!.
f

[QUOTE=SMT Member;10248341]Eh, no. Søndre Strømfjord, along with all other villages and places in Greenland, have had their Danish names replaced by Greenlandic ditto. Thus Søndre Strømfjord is now Kangerlussuaq. 'Bluie West 8' ceased to be in 1992, when the airport was handed over to Greenland for civilian use. Thus, the naming sequence is Bluie West 8 -> Søndre Strømfjord -> Kangerlussuaq. IATA code is SFJ, ICAO is BGSF - they weren't changed.

I flew into BGSF from 1968 to 1972 and the only name we knew was Søndre Strømfjord. That was what was on the approach plates we used. I later learned that around the WW II period the Bluie West names were used in Greenland but I don't know when that was dropped. I know that Inuit names are being used in Greenland and apparently Northern Canada but I also don't know when that began.

Back when we were doing the final certification testing of the 747-8, it was discovered that GEnx-2B engines didn't like to start when it was really, really cold (~-30 F or below), and we needed to develop a fix, fast. GE brainstormed some software tweaks to the starting logic, and Iqaluit was the only place they could find cold enough that we could go to test to see if any of the tweaks worked.
We needed to cold soak the aircraft overnight so the entire flight test and mechanic crew (~50 people) spent the night there. We didn't max out the available hotel space, but it was close...
Oh yea, and one of the tweaks to the logic worked great - engines started right up.
While we were preparing for the test, one of the flight test pilots cracked that this was one of those places where "There is a beautiful girl behind every tree". Suffice so say there wasn't a tree to be seen (and little else besides snow). Best I could describe it was like being above timberline, but without the mountains (or much of any elevation change - just some small hills).

According to Wikipedia, Frobisher Bay became Iqualuit in 1987.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iqaluit

I knew Iqualuit was well above the tree line, because I've been there for a fuel stop, but I didn't realize how much further south the tree line is in eastern Canada, as opposed to the west.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d6b774b54e.jpg

From "Inuvik and Iqaluit, tale of two cities: Canadian arctic from east to west":
https://tinyurl.com/y9qtplys

In 1966 Wardair started regular transatlantic operations from West and Eastern Canada to many UK and European airports using their new 727-11 CF-FUN

The airplane did a round trip to Europe each day in summer 1966 and had a utilization of over eighteen flying hours a day, far above any other 727 operator. The airplane rotated through Gatwick Airport nearly every day from Canada so that there was talk that the company had several 727’s.
Boeing and Transport Canada worked with Wardair and determined that the B727 could be operated with better fuel reserves than the previous piston engine operations utilizing long range cruise power settings and a modification to the fuel tank system to increase the range.

Their main refuelling stop was sondre stromfjord (Kangerlussuaq) airport in Greenland, Due to the influence of the very cold Greenland Ice Cap with its dominant and consistent high pressure area, the outflow winds off the ice cap kept the weather at the airbase unusually clear especially during the summer. The long runway is situated at the ice cap end of the fjord. One way in and one way out. The USAF operated a radar unit which allowed a safe approach to the runway even though the terrain along the fjord walls rose up in some areas over two thousand feet.
Frobisher Bay (Iqaluit) and Keflavik were used as alternates, along with Gander, Goose Bay, Shannon and Prestwick.

These refuelling stops in Greenland, the frozen North, and Iceland were very popular as the passengers were able shop duty free and, as well, purchase native artifacts, stretch their legs and claim they had been to the Arctic!

I wonder if the BA 787 pax did also enjoy ultimately their unplanned pop into the Frozen North?

The 727 was flown with two pilots, a navigator and a maintenance qualified flight engineer. Four stewardesses served the filet steaks on Royal Doulton china along with the complimentary drinks. It was a wonderful era in the airline world for passengers and the flight crews as well.
The inflight entertainment was playing Bingo...with small prizes offered by the crew.

The 727 famously flew 3411nm (3927m) non-stop in Nov 1970 from Windsor (Ont) - LGW in 6h 39m.

Anecdotes courtesy of Don Saunders of Wardair.

The problem sounds like a dodgy battery. Interested to hear the result of an enquiry.

According to my wife of 50 years (who worked the reception desk at Ye Olde Felbridge Hotel near Gatwick) there are many more anecdotes for telling of Wardair crews night-stopping in the hotel!

Spent many a time in Iqaluit. With a bit of double bunking , and provided there isn't a conference or sports tournament going on - there's lots of hotel room.

The airport fire services guys are top-notch up there - and a blast to hang with. A top notch diversion spot with very capable FSS as well.

Iqaluit is very much one of the 'big-cities' of the North. It has 7800 people living there! Throw a traditional name on it and foreigners automatically think it's some shanty town with a Hudson's Bay trading post and a row of igloo's 😒......There's towns in southern Canada; with more people, who have less amenities and space than Iqaluit does.

Between the Nova, Frobisher, and even Navigator Inn there's lots of room this time of year.

Any competent Customer Journey Management team at an airline should be able figure things out for these people.

It is easy to overlook just how BIG Canada really is. Especially North to South.

glad rag,

Very true and most of it is empty and inhospitable. I’ve flown London to Calgary and back many times. Nearly half the trip is over Canada!

and you only see lights about 1 hour out of Calgary..........................

Aren't about 2,000 of those people "Guests of the State"? The territorial prison is located in Iqaluit...
When we arrived for the 747-8 engine tests, it was 11pm when we got to the hotel - and none of us had eaten since lunch (the test 747 was a freighter and could only carry 10 people - the rest of us arrived on a chartered regional jet - we had to stop for gas 3 times to get there from Everett). The only place in town that was open was a Pub, and they stopped serving food 10pm.:*

tdracer
 

" Go ugly, early" was a trick successfully applied by one charmer in the RNoAF in the 1970s , according my friend Capt A. K.

We were also warned at Navy Bootcamp that some local girls had the motto : " Knock me up, and take me south."
Test Pilots should know these basics, Eh?
( Could be local coldwar rules in Norway, not applicable in Frobisher?)

Regards
Cpt B

You guys need to look in the little phone book every once a while! 'Snack Y2K' is the 24 food service in Iqaluit. It's honestly the best roast chicken meal I've ever had in my life. They deliver 24 hours. The key to being up north is never be afraid to ask. The cabbies usually can get yeah a meal of some sort for a reasonable fee any time. With a little planning and calling ahead as well, the Frobisher (where I suspect you stayed) will cater to flight crews after 10pm. We'll they did for us.

The 'guests' aren't usually counted in census' as local residents, but rather their addresses from where they live. Mind you, the majority of them are of no fixed address in Iqaluit.

I used to carry 5 days of food , fishing gear and a "22cal , just in case...
Smaller operation then BA and Boeing mind You.

td, a crate of Bourbon would have done the trick.

The very first thing we did when we checked into the hotel was ask if there was anyplace we could get dinner - the answer was a simple no, everything had closed at 10 except the previously mentioned bar. The very next thing we asked was when they started serving breakfast - 6am, which was 90 minutes after we had to leave to head back to the airport to do the testing (we wanted to test early, before the sun started to warm things up and we'd lose our required low temperatures). A few people did head off to the bar to knock back a few - they later confirmed no food aside from some bar snacks.
Travel split us between two hotels - don't recall now which place we stayed out (nice lobby, not so nice rooms), but the ones that stayed at the other hotel gave a similar story. After we were done with the testing, six of us had to fly back commercial - including me (long story) so we were dropped off at the airport terminal to check in for our flight to Toronto. After we checked in for our flight, I asked if there was any sort of restaurant on-site. No, just some pre-packed sandwiches in the gift shop, but there was a coffee shop a block down the street that had food. So we walked down the street to the coffee shop in the frigid cold (apparently concerns that the sun would warm things up enough to lose our test window were unfounded). No food service there either - just some pre-packed sandwiches :(. I did buy a crappy sandwich at the coffee shop, but the only decent food I got on the entire trip was in the Toronto airport (which nearly caused us to miss our connecting flight to Chicago :ooh:).
If there was 24 hour food service available - with delivery - no one we talked to seemed to know anything about it (and we asked plenty of people - when all you've had to eat for 24 hours is a stale sandwich you get desperate). Maybe those friendly Canadians just didn't want to share their precious food with those nasty American visitors...
It sticks in my mind as the least pleasant trip I ever took for Boeing - I'd had to drop my wife at the airport at midnight the night before, then I had to be at Boeing for the charter at 6am (although we didn't leave until after 8am). They had box lunches and some soft drinks but we were not warned we wouldn't arrive in Iqaluit until 10pm so most of the box lunches were polished off early on. After our late arrival in Iqaluit, I basically couldn't sleep so I stayed up until 2 doing email. I did go to bed for about 2 hours but I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep - back to the airport for the test. The return flight was Iqaluit - Toronto - Chicago - Seattle, arrive in Seattle at about midnight. But now I'm at SeaTac, and my car is in Everett where we caught the charter... Hour cab ride ($120) to get my car so I could turn around and drive home. Nearly 48 hours door to door, no meaningful sleep, a box lunch, a stale sandwich, and a meal at the Toronto airport all that I had to eat. After I finally got home and went to bed, my dog pee'd on the rug while I was sleeping - something he'd never done. I suspect he tried to wake me to let him out but finally gave up...

So, Boeing is brilliant at building aircraft!
Charter trips: Not so much!
Eh?

Actually most of the trips I was involved with that were set up by flight test have been nearly flawless. When we needed to go to British Airways to do a flight test, they always set us up in a nice place in London for a few days to 'acclimate' before heading off to Cardiff to do the actual testing (and London is not a bad place to 'acclimate'). Biggest complaint prior to Iqaluit was a flight test at Delta in Atlanta when the hotel they booked us into was in the middle of a major renovation.
The trip to Iqaluit was the exception - but that may have been because it was a huge rush. When we found out about the problem, (and my good friend who was responsible for certifying engine starting told management what had happened in Anchorage was not certifiable) we were rapidly running out of winter (late March IIRC) so it was a thrash to find someplace where it was going to be cold enough, then set everything up and go test. And it takes a small army when it's Boeing's aircraft - flight test personnel, mechanics and ground personnel, engineering, GE support people to program the changes in the FADEC s/w, between 50 and 60 people total. I think we were told on a Friday that it was forecast to be cold enough in Iqaluit and we left early Monday so we could test Tuesday.

Unfortunately an increasingly rare skill it seems, constrained by things like budget authority.

The most straightforward thing for a major carrier like BA is likely to cancel and commandeer the next BA after arrival at the nearest point (Toronto ?) and send it with the supposedly returning crew up to Iqaluit to pick up the load and continue to Calgary. All the rest of the recovery takes then place at major points. Sending a relief aircraft from Heathrow somehow seems more challenging and takes longer to achieve, plus engineering would want to hold it until they knew what spares and engineers to send. The only readily available charter capacity in Canada might be something like a 737, and you would need two for a 787 load.

Good Job Then.
 

Td
I think , all considering ,it sound like it was indeed a successful trip.
Mission accomplished .
When April is gone all of these places like Thule , Cambridge Bay, Siberia all enjoy 24hr sun an a balmy -15 or warmer.
So Amundsen/Scot Base would be next, for 6 months. Maybe not an option!
What was the restricting factor on starting in cold wx, if I may ask?

Regards
Cpt B

from BAsource

British Airways B787-9 G-ZBKR Iqualit Rescue Mission.

Sep 13, 2018

Following the technical diversion of BA103 London Heathrow – Calgary to Iqualit yesterday evening, British Airways Boeing 787-9 G-ZBKR positioned London Heathrow – Iqualit as BA9152 early this afternoon in order to take over the diverted service, routing Iqualit – Calgary as BA9601.


British Airways B787-9 G-ZBKA Returns from Iqualit to Cardiff Maintenance.
Sep 14, 2018
Following its technical diversion on 12th September, British Airways Boeing 787-9 G-ZBKA positioned Iqaluit – Cardiff-Wales for maintenance attention this afternoon as BA9174.

The engines wouldn't light off. They'd taken a 747-8 to Alaska to do some cold weather ECS testing - we'd offered propulsion support but they said it wasn't needed, no engine testing was planned. Well, when they got ready to come home and the aircraft had cold soaked at -30F, they couldn't start the engines. They'd try six or seven times - by which time lots of fuel had puddled in the engine - and when they finally got a light there was a loud bang and great balls of fire out the tailpipe. I think they had to haul the aircraft into a hanger and let it warm up a bit before they were able to get the engines started to come home.
GE played around with the fuel nozzle staging during starts to fix it (the GEnx has a really complex fuel injection system - basically acts like a dual annular combustor for emissions - but without the drawbacks of an actual dual annular combustor - so there are a lot of variables they can play with).
When we did the testing, GE would load a software 'trim' into one engine, and we'd try a start. The first one was OK - definitely an improvement - but the trim the tried on the second engine worked great. We tried that trim on engines 3 and 4 and again it worked great. The trims were not considered 'flight worthy' so they ran all four engines for ~20 minutes to get them nice and warm so they'd be able to get them started a few hour later when it was time to head back to Seattle, then shutdown and restored the original s/w on all engines.
This was going on spring of 2011, and we got type cert and started initial deliveries about six months later. If we hadn't gotten the fix identified in Iqaluit, I suppose they would have needed to head to someplace way, way south to do the test or we wouldn't have gotten type cert when we did.

So what WAS the Issue?