BA 747 divert to Irkutsk after nav system fails

[Ye Olde Pilot]

The London-Beijing flight with 270 passengers and 16 crew landed in Irkutsk, Eastern Siberia, at 10.41 local time on Wednesday.
Siberia Times report

Passengers were told there was a malfunction of the flight software on board flight BA 039. The plane landed 40 minutes after the initial request from the pilot to bring the plane down in Irkutsk.

British Airways Boeing 747 makes safe emergency landing after failure of navigation equipment

[D'pirate]

Interesting with 2 GPS, 3 IRS, VOR, DME, ADF and FMC? More to this than is immediately obvious!

[Ye Olde Pilot]

Airport spokesperson;

'The plane made an emergency landing in Irkutsk because of the failure of navigation equipment', said Yelena Stavitskaya, the Siberian airport's spokeswoman.

'Its passengers will be accommodated in hotels Angara and Irkutsk.'

BA technical experts are expected to fly to Irkutsk to assess the damage to the jumbo aircraft. It is expected many passengers will be offered onward travel by S7 - a Siberian airline that is also part of the OneWorld alliance.

The BA website indicated that an onward flight would be available at 21.00 (9pm) local time

[CaptainProp]

For landing fuel, it was 40 min after the request to land, not after T/O.

[Bearcat]

Those old 74's have seen better days. They are jaded and odd ball failures are bound to occur.

[GalleyTeapot]

BA 747's are dropping to bits, the 767's are even worse!

[Lord Spandex Masher]

Bearcat, I was about to say speak for yourself...but then you edited.

[GobonaStick]

Whatever happened seems to have happened over the northern Mongolian border.

[Ye Olde Pilot]

It appears to be an oldie G-CIVI..reg in May 1996.
They certainly get their moneys worth out of airframes at BA.

[Heathrow Harry]

Could have flown by Bradshaw - follow the Trans-Siberian................

[Contacttower]

1996 is young compared to some 747s in the BA fleet...

[Skipness One Echo]

Seventeen years is not old for a long haul airliner. Even Emirates have seventeen year old B777s, G-CIVI is from the second tranche of BA B744s.

[Capetonian]

It appears to be an oldie G-CIVI..reg in May 1996.

17 years ..... middle aged perhaps, but it's more about cycles than actual age and it will have done far less cycles than an aircraft of similar age used on short haul routes, and there are plenty of 20 year old+ shorthaul aircraft flying safely.

I have noticed though that some of BA's 747s are tatty inside and that doesn't give a good impression of the overall maintenance standards although I am confident they are safer than some other carriers with newer aircraft.

[Ye Olde Pilot]

Whatever the age of the aircraft this appears to be a software problem.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Emergency landing? Just a tech diversion surely?

[eckhard]

There are around 15 QRH drills that may require landing at the 'nearest suitable airport', inc:

Fire
Smoke
Fuel filter
Equipment cooling
Hydraulics
Fuel leak
Engine fail/damage

Not sure that 'navigation' per se was the problem. Maybe Equip Cooling affecting the nav displays?

Anyway, well done to the crew!

[GobonaStick]

If the nav system's conked, how do they know it's Irkutsk?

[Capn Bloggs]

Bluetooth GPS...ON
Tablet...ON
Memory Map...Start
Now Capn, where was it you wanted to go again?

[Ex Cargo Clown]

Are the BNL lot still knocking about?

[buggaluggs]

I would hazard a guess that if they did have a dual FMC issue, and were no longer able RNP, the Chinese may well refuse them entry into their airspace, especially Beijing. In which case Irkutsk has got to be a better option then Ulaanbaatar