Posted on 06/29/2024 6:23:26 AM PDT by libh8er
American Airlines flight #AA174 departed late Wednesday, June 26 2024 from Raleigh/Durham for a 7-hour flight to London Heathrow.
The Boeing 777-200ER (registration N756AM) climbed to 37,000 ft. But close to New York City, the crew decided to turn around following a mechanical issue.
The 22-year aircraft was vectored to Charlotte due to operational reason. It landed 3 hours later at CLT Airport.
(Excerpt) Read more at airlive.net ...
Must’ve been quite a mechanical issue for the aircraft to fly from its point of origin to New York airspace and then turn around and fly for 3 more hours ...
I’m guessing a problem that wasn’t necessarily an emergency, but concerning enough to not to venture out over the Atlantic where a divert field isn’t available.
Does anyone else look at what type of aircraft they will be flying in before booking the flight?
“If it’s Boeing, I’m not going”. - The unknown Freeper.
Charlotte is one of AA’s major hubs and so is JFK and LaGuardia. Maybe Charlotte had less of maintenance backlog?
I’m guessing that the matter wasn’t urgent enough, (such as an engine on fire), to require landing immediately. Therefore they burn off a few tons of fuel to have a more normal landing weight.
Possible, if it was an engine issue they have to be concerned about ETOPS.
Surprised that they have non-stops to London from Raleigh when they have the big former USAir hub at Charlotte. If they can fill a 777, good for them.
I’ve recently ridden a 777 and a 787 without concern. A “737” Max, no thanks.
If it’s Boeing 737 Max, I’m not going
It didn’t have to be a big mechanical issue for them to turn back to Charlotte, and not go Raleigh-Durham. Charlotte is a hub and that’s where they do repairs, not RDU.
Or maybe more skilled repair people and less DEI.
It could be even less important than that.
Twin engine jets cannot fly more than 60 minutes from a suitable airport unless certain conditions are met. It is called Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance Standards (ETOPS).
Each airline, aircraft type, and individual flight gets an extension of that 60 minutes depending on conditions and fuel requirements. It can be extended up to 370 minutes, but is generally 180 to 207 minutes for Atlantic crossings.
There are equipment and weather requirements that must be met before entering an ETOPS segment. There could have been an issue with communications equipment redundancy, navigation equipment redundancy, fire or smoke detection redundancy, a back up aircraft system (fuel pump, APU, hydraulics, etc.) or maybe the flight would not meet the fuel requirements at some point during the ETOPS segment.
There was no emergency or abnormal situation (that’s a technical term) or the flight would not have diverted to CLT.
CLT may have had a spare aircraft, or facilities to fix the problem. The 777 can also dump fuel.
Everyone wants to give Boeing a black eye, but it sounds like the system worked as intended in this situation.
EC
Yeah, crossing an ocean on one engine (and pushing that engine hard),... no thanks.
I think they’d have to cuff me to the seat. Because I’d want to be below throwing baggage and freight out.
I used to post that, when these Boeing failure articles first started ... and, some unknown FReeper (can’t recall their name, now ... hope it wasn’t you :) would have an absolute, triggered melt down.
Maybe they’re a former Boeing employee. 😂
Makes sense to me.
“Must’ve been quite a mechanical issue for the aircraft to fly from its point of origin to New York airspace and then turn around and fly for 3 more hours ...”
If it had been a big deal they would not have gone back to NC.
And any problem with a 22 year-old plane is highly unlikely to be a manufacturing issue.
Whistleblowers have been concerned about not only the 737 MAX but the 787 - which is now in service with most major airlines and has not had any recent serious issues. A sudden 787 crisis could kill off Boeing as a commercial aircraft manufacturer - because the cost to airlines to pull that model out of service at this point would be crippling.
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