"British Airways flight turns back to Heathrow after Jordan's £10,000 breast implants threaten to burst as cabin pressure is reduced.

Interviewed later, the supermodel said : "Well it was ee-ver me tits or the 'plane, like, so I went, like, ballistic, like, y'know, and the bloke wot drives it came out of his cockbit where 'e sits in the front, or watever it's called, and he goes, like, you know, your tits is a national treasure. So 'e lands the 'plane. Innit"

Yeah, it's got a lot more mainstream coverage than the horrific UPS accident in Dubai. Which seems like a bizarre news-worthiness scale to be working on.

<<Quote:
Also thought it odd that they put a heavy 747 back on the ground in as little as 11 mins

Especially at such a busy airport... So no fuel dump ? Overweight landing ? For a suspected problem with a door handle ? Hmm...>>

11 minutes is not an unduly short period for the aircraft to return. The problem occurred soon after take-off and the aircraft was reported to have crossed Wimbledon prior to landing. That's an approximate track distance of 30 nautical miles. The aircraft would have been flying at a speed of 200 kts (+/-) so it would cover that distance in about 9 minutes. I do not know what happened on the day; I'm just saying that it would have been possible.

If a pilot of a heavy jet tells ATC soon after take-off that he has a problem and wants to return, even if he does not declare an emergency it's likely that ATC will afford him priority. It's no big deal, just leave a slot on final approach and space the following traffic accordingly.

New York isn't too long a trip for a 747 (one of BA's shortest routes on it I think!), might not be very overweight / overweight at all?

Not a lot overweight as its take off wt was in region of 310 tonnes and max landing wt
285 tonnes. If the door handle was moving around when it shouldnt then quite agree land the thing

Why didn't they just let Tony Hancock in?

There's one for the older UK generation...................

If anybody can actually SEE the area clearly that is circled in red on the photo of the alleged aircraft, my hat's off to them. Even my trusty Sherlock Holmes spy glass cannot determine what that bit is hanging off the side. Hm.

We'll probably never hear a report on what happened.

But I was thinking back on my (ancient) days in the cabin before going on to other professions.

Once we went to automatic on the doors, if they did not set properly for some reason, a light would come on then. Before take-off and the flight engineer (yes, it was so long go some aircraft had a 3rd crew member) would alert us. I was on the old DC10 or the 747s when the latter were in their first decade of service. But there were alerts for this problem before take-off.

So...on this type of aircraft, if the door was not properly set to automatic (or whatever they call it today), wouldn't they know before take-off? Or could it be set to automatic, look good, and then once take-off occurs, "unset" itself and open? Guess so, if somebody set it and it looked good before take off.

It all sounds really odd. So any info from those who know would be interesting.

It was Kenneth Williams that wanted to get in, not Monsieur Hancock.

Frangatang
 

It was also Tony Hancock, although for a moment the name of the film escapes me. Hancock - dressed as a chicken - arrives breathless at a checkin in Paris.

"I need to fly to London!" Gasps Hancock.

"It is a long way M'seur!" Is the reply. :)





You had to be there. :O

Roger.

The Kenneth Williams/Tony Hancock comments are about the Hancock's Half Hour episode called "The Test Pilot".

Hancock was the pilot and Kenneth Williams was a ground engineer who had been on the tailplane when Hancock took off. In flight he started knocking on the canopy asking to be let in.

The chicken bit is something else entirely.