Mayday call from a 787 Dreamliner - Scary!

pedroeibar1

Scary story here

Canadian officials say they’ll talk to their counterparts in India after air traffic controllers reportedly ignored a series of Mayday calls from an Air Canada Boeing 787 and ordered the crew to enter holds instead. The Dreamliner had finished a 16-hour flight from Toronto to Mumbai on Sept. 18 but a runway overrun by a SpiceJet Boeing 737 closed the active runway. Rather than going to its alternate, the aircraft was put in a series of holds by Mumbai controllers. After an hour of turning left, the Air Canada plane was getting low on fuel so the crew asked for clearance to its alternate. They were told the unidentified alternate airport was unavailable because it was at capacity and unable to take any more traffic.
After consulting with their dispatchers, the pilots decided to head for Hyderabad, about 350 miles away, but were told by controllers that Hyderabad wasn’t taking any more aircraft, either. Because of their fuel situation, the pilots called a Mayday but were put in a hold. A second Mayday resulted in a diversion. It took a total of four Maydays to convince controllers to give them a direct route to Hyderabad where the airliner landed safely. “The operator reported that ATC continued trying to divert the flight or attempted to place it in another hold,” Canada’s Transportation Safety Board said in its report. “The flight crew had to declare MAYDAY four times before ATC cleared them for the approach into VOHS. The TSB is in contact with India’s AAIB.”

California Dreamer

Careless yes, scary? Well only if it was the Daily Mail!

Irish Steve

16 hour flight, an hour hold, then a significant diversion?

Wouldn't have been possible a few years ago, they'd have been on fumes not long after landing, it gives a clear picture of how much has changed in the industry in terms of range and economy. It's not that many years ago that the most important calculation on a long haul flight was the point of no return, where the decision had to be made as to if there was enough fuel to continue to the destination or not. While in theory it's still something that might be relevant to long oceanic flights, the majority of crews now have probably never had to do the calculations, between the computers being a lot more capable, and the massive increase in range of the latest generations of jets.

Tenger

Here is a less dramatic version;

avherald.com/h?article=4af4dc97&opt=0

pedroeibar1

California Dreamer wrote: »

Careless yes, scary? Well only if it was the Daily Mail!

Clearly you know more about the Daily Mail than the meaning and use of a 'Mayday' call. :rolleyes: