Posted on 12/31/2022 6:06:14 PM PST by libh8er
This incident took place on United Airlines flight UA839, which operates the 7,488-mile journey from Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD). Specifically, this involves the flight that was scheduled to take off at 10:55PM on Thursday, December 29, 2022, and land in Sydney at 9:15AM on Saturday, December 31, 2022. Presumably most of the 230 passengers onboard were excited to celebrate the new year in Sydney.
The flight was operated by a seven-year-old Boeing 787-9 with the registration code N38955. For roughly the first seven hours, the flight operated as planned, flying southwest over the Pacific Ocean, including flying to the south of Hawaii.
However, at that point there were reportedly some engine issues, and the plane’s right engine had to be shut down. That’s never a fun situation when you’re flying in a remote area, with limited diversion points. At this point the flight was just north of Kiribati, and the plane started flying to the south.
The United 787 descended from its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet down to 20,000 feet, where it proceeded to cruise for nearly three hours.
After roughly 10 hours in the air, the plane ended up diverting to Pago Pago, American Samoa (PPG), where it landed at 6:22AM local time on December 30, 2022 (Pago Pago is on the opposite side of the International Date Line of Sydney).
Keep in mind that since American Samoa is a US territory, travelers can enter with a US passport. I wonder if that factored into the decision to divert there compared to another airport in the region.
United Airlines dispatches rescue Boeing 787 United Airlines generally does a great job with minimizing disruptions from diversions, and this was no exception. Obviously finding a spare Boeing 787 and sending it to Pago Pago is no small task, especially when you consider that you also need to find a crew that’s “legal” to work the trip, while minimizing disruptions to other passengers.
Following this incident, United dispatched a Boeing 787-9 from Sydney to Pago Pago. United sent a roughly two-year-old plane with the registration code N24979. It would appear that United canceled its Sydney to Houston flight to make this happen — I imagine it wasn’t too full, departing Australia just before the new year.
The plane departed Sydney for the 2,736-mile journey at 5:22PM on December 31, 2022, and landed in Pago Pago at 12:44AM on December 31, 2022.
The plane is now scheduled to operate as UA3032 from Pago Pago to Sydney, departing at 3AM on December 31, 2022, and arriving in Sydney at 7:01AM on January 1, 2023. That’s quite some time travel! 😉
Twin engine plane. One engine fails - in the middle of the Pacific - in the middle of the night.
I’m not a pilot, but that’s not a good situation.
I’d freak. wow.......
Good thing the other didn’t fail, they would have been there all night.
H/T Ron White
XD
What’s even worse is, they ran out of coffee.
I got about five of those little bags of peanuts.
Not Oceanic Airlines Flight 815…
I think I see the problem,
“The flight was operated by a seven-year-old…”.
ETOPS for the win!
140,000 people.on Guam, the FBI has an office there.
Good thing the other didn’t fail, they would have been there all night.
= = =
And BuddyGig would threaten them.
Ray Epps needs a warm spot to vacation under the care of the FBI.
Guam has a much larger drug problem than American Samoa. They also operate factories which finish garments and employ a fairly large number of foreign nationals.
Twin engine plane. One engine fails - in the middle of the Pacific - in the middle of the night.
= = =
And they talked of one pilot, not two.
Calling BuddyGig, again.
I was no air carrier pilot nor was I qualified in jets, but I do have a lot of time in multi engine.
Most twin engine aircraft can make it safely to a safe landing with one engine unless the engine loss is at some very critical stage, such as on takeoff.
That is the theory and what we all tell ourselves on dark rainy nights.
But when it happens, the first thing that goes through your mind is “why”?....Could it be something that will make the other engine quit, like dirty fuel?
I had a friend killed exactly that way. An unsupervised new hire working alone on the ramp refueled his plane with jet fuel. Just after takeoff over mountainous terrain, both quit...first one and very shortly the second quit.
But almost every air carrier type aircraft can go a long way on one to a safe landing, but they are required for safety reasons to land at the nearest suitable airport.
Three hours flying on one engine.
Pretty spiffy.
I would have been sweating like a whore in church.
I hate flying.
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