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https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/11/travel/british-airways-plane-double-diversion/index.html
I wonder what compo that might attract lol
Unlucky. Sick passenger = no compo, even for ‘follow on’ delays such as crew being out of hours, assuming no additional delays from other things within BA’s control.
Can’t complain at BA response though, the most simple thing to do would have been find a hotel for the crew and run back to London a day later. Not easy to accomodate a plane load of passengers comfortably in Gander I believe though. They went to considerable effort and expense to get everybody back as quickly and as comfortably as possible. Take a look at Virgin and their 2 night stopover in Turkey for how not to do it!
Diversions aren’t that easy to handle.
Though Gander is one of the more capable airports due to its location and frequency of being used.
Saw on Facebook yesterday a post about an A380 plane that couldn’t land at Perth (the Australian one) and the plane diverted to Sydney – so not a short hop.
Of course all the armchair warriors were up in arms about that and how they could have just landed at another, closer, airport or that the government should build an A380 compatible airport nearby!
No thought about the need for immigration officers or the need to find rooms for 500+ people, crew rest and so on or even the ability for the other airport to be able to handle an A380.
Can’t complain at BA response though, the most simple thing to do would have been find a hotel for the crew and run back to London a day later. Not easy to accomodate a plane load of passengers comfortably in Gander I believe though. They went to considerable effort and expense to get everybody back as quickly and as comfortably as possible. Take a look at Virgin and their 2 night stopover in Turkey for how not to do it!
If you see the theatre show ‘Come from Away’, that is the plot of the show.
I’ve actually been to Gander airport three times! First two were on an ATA Lockheed L-1011 TriStar chartered by Travel City Direct into Orlando Sanford – didn’t have the legs to make it non stop ! Long time ago now but if the terminal building is still the same then it’s tiny, had an ice cream and got back on for the next leg. Not so fun in the middle of the night on the way home though . Once for a medical diversion but we refueled and carried on home.
That GCM flight is often jinxed! A few years ago going the other way it turned into 19 hours. Our MAN-LHR connection was cancelled 3 hours before departure, but we managed to cajole the ground staff into getting us a taxi to LHR. We then found out we’d been incorrectly re-ticketed so by the time that was sorted at LHR we barely made it through security & to the gate by the skin of our teeth.
We did take off on time but then on the ground at NAS there was a freak thunder storm and a private jet crash landed on the runway. I thought we would be stranded for the night, but they just towed the damaged aircraft to the side of the runway, did a visual inspection and declared it safe again!
Crew valiantly went into the terminal to forage for refreshments but there was only Dunkin’ Donuts open – though my son who was about 13 at the time was more than happy when they got back on the plane with boxfuls 😂 🍩
I’ve actually been to Gander airport three times! First two were on an ATA Lockheed L-1011 TriStar chartered by Travel City Direct into Orlando Sanford – didn’t have the legs to make it non stop !
You’ve reminded me of my visit to Gander with ATA. Turned up at Gatwick expecting to be at JFK 8 hours later, instead we set off for Milan-Malpensa, then Paris-Orly before the announcement that we couldn’t make JFK nonstop from there so refuelling required in Gander. I was a zombie on arrival 🙂
We ended up in Gander when the kids were young flying from London to Toronto for Christmas. Tiny airport with little around. Whatever the issue was with the plane it finally got sorted. Plane was refuelled. We then had to wait for the blizzard to stop before finally getting to Toronto about 8 hours late.
Glad I wasn’t on it, but I thought BA handled this really well, getting pax to LHR with the minimum possible delay.
Surprised to read though that part of the reason for the delay was because the 777-200s don’t have crew rest areas.
There have been some awful stories lately of flights turning back around the half way mark for technical reasons.
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