PH-BFL, a KLM 747-400, is going for triple gold: the longest flight to nowhere in 2017, the longest delay of 2017 and the most reports on The Aviation Herald in one month.
From member Passenger: http://www.luchtzak.be/forums/viewtopic.php?p=345387#p345387
The flight to nowhere happened on 16th Jan 2017, when KL-565 from Amsterdam to Nairobi made a U-turn southwest of Cairo, thus making it an 8 hour journey AMS-AMS. The reason was that “something on the wing was discovered to be loose”.
http://avherald.com/h?article=4a3a0a2d&opt=0
The long delay: On Friday 20th January 2017, KL-736 from Willemstad/Curaçao to Amsterdam had to return to CUR because of a bird strike: http://avherald.com/h?article=4a3cf352&opt=0
Passengers were transported to hotels on Friday, and the Dutch press reports that the passengers were brought back to the airport on Saturday evening. But boarding was cancelled because the problem wasn’t fixed, contrary to expectations. PH-BFL is still grounded at CUR now. KLM send over an empty 747-400, apparently PH-BFB as KL-9865, to bring home the stranded passengers. PH-BFP will land at AMS in 1 hour from now.
PH-BFL’s third report on AvHerald happened on 15th Jan 2017: “…PH-BFL performing flight KL-714 (dep Jan 14th) from Paramaribo (Suriname) to Amsterdam with 428 people on board, was descending towards Amsterdam when the crew received a cargo hold smoke indication, declared emergency and instructed emergency services to not open any doors. The crew advised they would vacate the runway and taxi to a remote stand… Emergency services did not find any trace of fire, heat or smoke…” http://avherald.com/h?article=4a38635e&opt=0
