United Airways passengers touring from London to San Francisco on Saturday had been in for fairly an journey, and obtained a free 11-hour stopover within the Canadian Arctic.
United transatlantic flight diverts to Iqaluit, Canada
On Saturday, November 5, 2022, United Airways flight UA900 was scheduled to fly from London (LHR) to San Francisco (SFO). The flight was operated by a roughly seven yr outdated Boeing 787-9 with the license plate N13954.
Per the schedule, the 5,368-mile flight was alleged to depart at 12:35PM and arrive at 4:40PM, and take a complete of 11hr5min.
For the primary 5 hours, the flight operated as deliberate, flying close to the southern tip of Iceland, over Greenland, after which flying over the Canadian Arctic. Nonetheless, roughly 5 hours into the flight, there was a mechanical problem requiring a diversion.
The choice was made to divert to Iqaluit Worldwide Airport (YFB). This was roughly 70 minutes away, and required making a pointy flip to the southeast.
This airport has an 8,605-foot runway, although ordinarily solely will get service from slender physique jets on home flights. Nonetheless, it’s not too uncommon to see transatlantic diversions right here, when issues go unsuitable.
Passengers had been safely on the bottom in Iqaluit Airport at 3:38PM native time.
There was just one small problem — at this level you had a airplane with mechanical points in a distant space, with no substitute airplanes or crews wherever shut by.
United sends rescue airplane & crew from Denver
United’s operations crew rapidly sprung into motion, and by all accounts did a very good job. A six yr outdated United Boeing 787-9 with the license plate N27965 was dispatched from Denver (DEN) to Iqaluit (YFB).
The airplane departed roughly 4 hours after the opposite Boeing 787 landed in Iqaluit, which is pretty spectacular, when you think about that United wanted to discover a new airplane, plus a whole new crew.
That flight took simply over 4 hours to get to Iqaluit, and it landed there simply earlier than midnight native time.
Admittedly there was nonetheless fairly a bit of labor to be achieved there — all passengers and luggage needed to be transfered to the brand new plane, and that’s all in all probability a bit extra guide of a course of than it might be at a significant hub, by way of boarding, baggage dealing with, and many others.
The rescue flight from Iqaluit to San Francisco lastly took off at 1:34AM. It’s at present enroute, and is anticipated to land in San Francisco at 3:40AM this morning, 11 hours not on time.
Backside line
A United Boeing 787 needed to divert to the Canadian Arctic on account of a mechanical problem. In a scenario like this, the precedence is all the time getting on the bottom safely. The catch is that you just then must take care of the logistical challenges this presents.
Whereas I’m certain this wasn’t a nice expertise for passengers or crew, it looks like United dealt with this example fairly nicely. United dispatched a airplane and crew from Denver inside hours, with a purpose to choose up passengers in Iqaluit. These passengers are at present enroute to San Francisco, and may land round 11 hours not on time.
And to suppose that simply yesterday I used to be writing about presumably utilizing Aeroplan factors to go to Iqaluit with Canadian North. I might have simply flown United from London to San Francisco. 😉
What do you make of this United Airways diversion to Iqaluit?
