'No fly' passenger on BA flight

flyhigh

flyhigh

Well-Known Member
\'No fly\' passenger on BA flight

Link on CNN

I can't believe this story made it to a.net before here
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BTW- why do they use Bangor, Maine as an airport for diverting planes?
 
Re: \'No fly\' passenger on BA flight

Hardly knew her! Had to say it, sorry!
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But in all seriousness, and this is just a presumption, but considering they've got clearance to enter the US already, it's the first suitable US landing point after crossing the Atlantic in case they've got to process the passengers thru immigration.

Side note: Kristie and I landed in Bangor coming from Paris because there was temporary 767ER pilot shortage and it was within 8 hours (and legal limits) to legally land and replace the crew for the continuation down to Atlanta.

It's got to suck crossing the Atlantic, and then having to takeoff and fly back because of one passenger.
 
Re: \'No fly\' passenger on BA flight

I was about to post this.(Had the link copied already)

Now if they were in mid-flight, why don't they just keep going
instead of coming back? And why did it take all the way to mid-flight for them to notice this? If he wanted to blow the aircraft up on take-off it would have been done. Shouldn't they find these things out at the airport?
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Re: \'No fly\' passenger on BA flight

[ QUOTE ]
BTW- why do they use Bangor, Maine as an airport for diverting planes?

[/ QUOTE ]

Bangor is the old Dow AFB, closed in the spring of 1968. It was an old SAC base and hence has a long and wide runway, suitable for just about any airplane built. Plus a lot of other facilities and fuel.

It became Bangor International Airport and is in a nutshell the first airport on US soil that is available for international flights returning from Europe. It also has all the necessary security and customs facilities needed for international flights.

Because fuel reserves for domestic and international flights are different some international flights will be dispatched as if they were going to Bangor. Once they reach a certain point and they have enough fuel to meet domestic reserves they are then re-dispatched to the destination they were going to eventually end up. If they don’t have enough fuel they land at Bangor, gas up and take off to their eventual destination.
 
Re: \'No fly\' passenger on BA flight

Very interesting that BA decided to fly back to London instead of stopping in Bangor. Wonder why?

Mike
 
Re: \'No fly\' passenger on BA flight

could it be that the US wouldn't let them in their airspace at all? so they had no choice but to turn around?
 
Re: \'No fly\' passenger on BA flight

The CNN article makes it sound like the original request was for the BA flight to divert to Bangor, but instead they opted to return to Heathrow.

Other press reports of this incident leave out the part about the Bangor diversion and make it sound like the US authorities forced the airplane back to Heathrow.


Mike
 
Re: \'No fly\' passenger on BA flight

Again, they should have figured this out on the groud, not on mid-flight.
 
Re: \'No fly\' passenger on BA flight

I am no authority on this, I am not even a pilot (yet...) but the reason BA returned to Heathrow may be due to a number of operational reasons:
They might need to change pilots after landing in Bangor in order to continue to NY (this stop might take some hours if some security checks have to be made and there will not be any replacement pilot available there).
They might want to re-schedule the flight with a different airplane and it is easier to do so from their home base, rather than cause a chain of delays.
The cost of the airport service at Bangor may be higher the the cost of returning to Heathrow.
Just some thoughts...I don't really know but I'm pretty sure they had a good reason.
 
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