BAW183 London to New York JFK returning
 

Just noticed BAW183 747 4/01/2018 turned back just past Ireland, looks like its returning to Heathrow. Anyone know why?

Statistically, it's most likely to be a (non-life-threatening) medical issue, though of course it could be a technical problem. It's not using an emergency squawk and is currently in the Ockham hold.

Give it 24 hours, then visit here to find out what the reason was.

Jfk is snowed in. Maybe the reason

Which begs the question why did it take off in the first place?

The 183 was a return due to snow, I believe there was another.

As to why did they go on the first place? My best guess would be the weather forecast valid at departure time indicated it was ok to go from an aviating POV but as the situation on the ground developed and people at JFK saw what they were really dealing with then maybe other issues came into play..

Cancellation/major delays to some the earlier BA flights outbound from JFK would have made ramp/gate space unavailable for the inbounds (gate space at the terminal BA use at JFK is very limited). If general ground infrastructure or onwards connecting flights were badly effected by the weather there might have been probs getting pax (and crew) away from JFK post arrival and the port authority might not have appreciated any more arrivals.....

In short the decision to return might not have been purely down to aircraft operating limits.

Yes, BA175 had returned to LHR about an hour before BA183 departed, having turned round after being airborne for 3 hours.

The afternoon flight, BA177, made it across the Pond but was then diverted to Dulles.

From a JFK info site this morning.

I don’t know how much notice (if any) operators got of the closure.

Having nothing better to do I checked FR24, Flightaware, etc. There were around 100 diversions of flights bound for JFK. I counted 18 international diversions to ORD and two to MIA (XL 1438 from Guayaquil got to the NYC area before diverting), Obviously closer alternates couldn't cope with the demand.

LGA was closed for most of the day - there were a few DL ops late in the evening.

Other flights that appear to have returned to base:

DY 7019 (CDG)
IB 6253 (MAD)
VS 25 (LHR)

Obviously the weather turned out worse than forecast, but the met guys can't get it right all of the time. At least the pilots & despatchers knew to load a lot of contigency fuel.

DY took over 4 hours to get a gate at JFK.....

More issues today 06/01

LH400, LH410 and OS87 all turned round over the UK or Ireland and returned to FRA, MUC and VIE respectively

This seems to be because of ground congestion at JFK with planes waiting hours for a gate and then pax waiting hours for baggage.

I notice that according to FR24, the SAA203 (A346) from JNB landed this morning at JFK almost on time after a 15h29m flight time and then waited 4 hours for a gate. :eek: