A Virgin Atlantic flight from London to New York has been diverted to an airport in Halifax, Canada.
It seems that the pilot made an error when transmitting the "highjack signal", but the aircraft has been escorted by Canadian fighter planes anyway.
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I do also not understand why they diverted the plane to Halifax...ArthurQ wrote:Why do they always send them here to Canada when there is a chance of a hijacker? We don't want them!
If it was the nearest okay, but if not there is something wrong.
Interesting that the transponder sent wrong signals out. Maybe
the pilots made something wrong ???
rgds,
A380-800
The landfall for Westbound North Atlantic flights is somewhere in ... Canada, dear ArthurQArthurQ wrote:Why do they always send them here to Canada when there is a chance of a hijacker? We don't want them!
The Atlantic Ocean extends in an S shape from the arctic to the antarctic regions between North and South America on the West and Europe and Africa on the East. And the Atlantic has relatively few islands, with the greatest concentration found in the Caribbean region.
Although, the shortest distance across the Atlantic Ocean (c.1,600 mi/2,575 km) is between SW Senegal, W Africa, and NE Brazil, E South America, most crossing are flown over the North part of the Ocean.
ETOPS has also its role in the routeplanning: Without an ETOPS rating, an aircraft with only two engines must be able to get to an airport where it can safely land within 60 minutes if an engine fails in-flight. ETOPS extends this "rule time" to 90 minutes or more, up to a maximum of 180 minutes. Then the aircraft with engine trouble(s) has to reach the nearest runway, and that is in these crossings more than often on the East coast of your Canada... Few captains will make a 180 to Iceland...
As you know ETOPS means "Engines Turned Off, Passengers Swim" and is not is an acronym for "Extended-Range Twin-Engine Operations".
You could also Ask Captain Lim
My dear SN30952 I am quite aware of North Atlantic Region(NAT) and the NAT Organized Track System(OTS). I have written and passed my ETOPS and West Atlantic Route System (WATRS) RVSM study packages a while back. Having flown the routes for a while now I am quite aware of routings, training and equipment requirements.
Since the aircraft in question was not suffering from engine or structure failure I do not see the need to land it at Halifax. Since it was proceeding to New York it could have landed at NAS or AFB in Maine, New Hampshire
or Massachusett.
Since the aircraft in question was not suffering from engine or structure failure I do not see the need to land it at Halifax. Since it was proceeding to New York it could have landed at NAS or AFB in Maine, New Hampshire
or Massachusett.