Diversions for Mechanical Problems

[Barb-SAN]

Capt. Hutch, I posted a thread over in the tracking forum yesterday about a flight I was tracking from MSP to SAN that was diverted to LAX for a "mechanical problem". http://www.takingflight.us/forums/showthread.php?t=8438 . It was on the ground at LAX for about 5 hrs. before continuing on to SAN.

Would you tell us a bit about the decision-making process of dealing with "mechanical problems"? (When they are a "no-go", when you would return to the originating airport, when you would divert, etc.)

For a frequent flyer, hearing the pilot announce "There's a mechanical problem with the plane, so we are going to divert to a different airport" might be a ho-hum announcement, with maybe some irritation at the realization there might be the inconvenience of a missed connection, and a late arrival. For a "fearful flyer", especially an infrequent flyer, an announcement of "mechanical problems" might trigger fears of the wings falling off, with death soon to follow...:rolleyes:

[spiffytoo]

I once was on a flight that landed because of mechanical trouble. I was flying from Birmingham to Cincinnati on Delta. Soon after takeoff, the pilot came on the intercom and said that we would have to land in Nashville because of a problem. He said that the primary hydraulic system had failed, that there was nothing to worry about since the two backup systems were working fine, but that regulations required an immediate landing. I was a bit nervous, but the plane did not seem to be in distress. We did a basically normal approach to Nashville and landed without incident.

In this case, the airline chose to book us onto other flights rather than have us wait for repairs. The Delta agents put me on a US Airways flight, and I got to my destination, with my baggage, not much later than I would have without the diversion. All in all, it was not a bad experience, certainly compared to what has happened when I have flown on Midway, Northwest, and JetBlue. :fuming:

[Captain Hutch]

The decision making process starts in the cockpit when the captain or first officer determine that a system is not operating normally. Many times the system with a malfunction is a backup system that doesn't affect the performance of the aircraft at all, but if the primary system failed, then there would be a problem. In this case, it would be prudent to land at an appropriate field to get the problem fixed. I would notify the dispatcher via the acars and we would discuss the problem and where the best place to land for maintenance would be. In an urgent situation I would declare an emergency with air traffic control and request routing to the nearest appropriate field.

I think the rule of thumb for the passengers would be if the captain makes an announcement that there is a mechanical problem, then by definition it would not be urgent and the best thing to do is wait for more information from the flight deck. I try to explain the problem as best I can without saying something that the passengers might misinterpret. That is why some captains will just state that there is a mechanical problem.

The ultimate decision rests with the captain, and hopefully he will use his crew to get all the needed information to make that decision.

Hope this helps,

Hutch :tiphat:

[CAflyer]

My friend just flew from LAX to SFO to Beijing last night and I might make the same trip to visit him in the next year. I noticed the plane goes direct from SFO to Beijing and I was wondering where the plane would divert in an emergency, are there other islands like Hawaii it could land at if needed. It looks to be about 14 hours over the pacific.

[Barb-SAN]

I would notify the dispatcher via the acars and we would discuss the problem and where the best place to land for maintenance would be. Hutch :tiphat:

Thanks, Capt. Hutch. I was wondering what this acars is...for the detail-oriented ;), here's a link to Wikipedia that explains it... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACARS. You can listen to a transmission here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Acars_sample.ogg (unintelligible!)

A few days after I posted my question, I asked a friend who flies for NWA about that diversion. Although he didn't know specifics for THAT flight, he said that LAX has more maintenance facilities for NWA than does SAN. Also the runways are longer at LAX, so if there was a problem with the brakes, landing on a longer runway would be safer.

[MathFox]

My friend just flew from LAX to SFO to Beijing last night and I might make the same trip to visit him in the next year. I noticed the plane goes direct from SFO to Beijing and I was wondering where the plane would divert in an emergency, are there other islands like Hawaii it could land at if needed. It looks to be about 14 hours over the pacific.
I recommend a look at the Great Circle Mapper; the shortest route from SFO to PEK is over the Aleutian Islands and Korea... http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=SFO-PEK&RANGE=&PATH-COLOR=&PATH-UNITS=mi&PATH-MINIMUM=&SPEED-GROUND=&SPEED-UNITS=kts&RANGE-STYLE=best&RANGE-COLOR=&MAP-STYLE=&ETOPS=60&ETOPS=120 for your convenience I've asked the website to plot 1 and 2 hour circles around the airfields available in case of an emergency. You see you are within one hour of an airfield for most of the flight.