So, story time. Apologize if Ive told this one before.
Flew LAX to NRT followed by min rest to deadhead on a company freighter to PVG (Shanghai). Show up for the deadhead exhausted and I’m told that it’s cool if I hit the bunk right after we take off. NRT-PVG is a short flight, but any sleep is better than none.
I feel the plane descending, so I hop out of the bunk, put on my uniform and strap into a supernumerary seat. I feel pretty good, even the short nap must have done me well.
Staring out the window, I see a long bridge. I fly into PVG all the time, you’d think I’d noticed that before. Oh well, the Chinese build stuff all the time. Then I see some mountains. There aren’t any mountains near Shanghai, I am concerned. Maybe we diverted to ICN for weather. We touch down and we roll passed the cathay pacific cargo terminal in Hong Kong. I am concerned, but sterile cockpit exists until the seatbelt sign goes off. I’m freakin out a little. Did I sleep though the ground time in PVG? I sleep like the dead sometimes.
We finally park, I approach the flight deck. Thankfully it’s the same two guys who were driving when we left NRT. Captain turns to me “you look like you have some questions.”
Turns out they had low oil pressure on one of the engines after we left NRT and shut it down. Because we were tankering so much fuel and we had a spare engine for the 747-8 in HKG the company asked them to divert. That explains why I felt like I got an extra two hours of sleep.
They didn’t tell me because “they thought it would be funny.” In hindsight it was, but until then, I was confused.
