On Tuesday, an Aer Lingus Airbus A330 diverted to the same airport twice on a single flight. This is even wilder than the story I shared earlier in the week, where the same TUI Boeing 737 diverted twice in the same day (on different flights).
In this post:
A complicated Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Boston
This incident happened on Tuesday, August 9, 2022, and involves Aer Lingus flight EI133 from Dublin (DUB) to Boston (BOS). The flight was operated by a roughly five year old Airbus A330-300 with the registration code EI-FNG.
The short 2,993-mile transatlantic hop from Dublin to Boston was blocked at seven hours, and was supposed to depart at 11:35AM and arrive at 1:35PM. However, that’s not what ended up happening. Rather the plane ended up flying to Bradley Airport in Hartford (BDL)… twice.
Weather causes first Aer Lingus diversion
The Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Boston ended up departing around two hours behind schedule, at 1:35PM. While the flight operated mostly as planned across the Atlantic, there was bad weather in Boston around the flight’s anticipated arrival time.
While the flight first entered a holding pattern, the decision was eventually made to divert to Bradley Airport, roughly 115 miles from Boston. Roughly 7hr5min after departing Dublin, the flight ended up landing at Bradley Airport, at around 3:40PM local time. Once on the ground, the plane refueled and waited for the weather to improve.
Engine failure causes second Aer Lingus diversion
After being on the ground at Bradley Airport for a bit over an hour, the Airbus A330 once again attempted a departure at around 4:55PM. From there it was just going to be a very short flight to Boston. That’s not what happened, though. Shortly after takeoff, the A330’s right engine had a compressor stall.
The plane ended up having to return to Bradley Airport — the plane was in the air for just 13 minutes, and reached a maximum cruising altitude of 3,600 feet. As you’d expect, no one was injured from this incident.
As of the time of this post, the plane is still on the ground at Bradley Airport. Presumably passengers were transported to Boston via buses, or something.
The funny coincidence about the diversion to Bradley Airport is that Aer Lingus used to fly between Dublin and Bradley, but the route was recently cut. If you check out my post about that route being cut, you’ll see that to this day people leave comments asking for the Dublin to Hartford flight to be brought back.
I can’t help but think that for some passengers onboard, the Hartford area might have actually been their final destination, given the big Irish population there. I assume those people may have even been happy about the diversion.
Bottom line
Passengers on one of Tuesday’s Aer Lingus flights from Dublin to Boston had a pretty eventful journey. The plane first diverted to Bradley Airport due to bad weather in Boston. The plane ended up taking off again a bit over an hour after arriving at the airport, but unfortunately there were engine issues, which caused the plane to have to return to Bradley Airport again.
That’s bad luck for passengers, plain and simple. It’s not often you see a single flight divert to the same airport twice.
What do you make of this Aer Lingus diversion?
(Tip of the hat to Simple Flying)
I was on the flight. The crew was outstanding, as were all the passengers. No one panic, screamed, cried, or got upset. Everyone reached out to calm and support others.
But once on the ground, the crew took off...getting a rousing cheer from the passengers...many of us stuck for 4 hours waiting to get luggage as there was NO ONE able to handle 300+ passengers. The terminal was closed, so we had to stay overnight...
I was on the flight. The crew was outstanding, as were all the passengers. No one panic, screamed, cried, or got upset. Everyone reached out to calm and support others.
But once on the ground, the crew took off...getting a rousing cheer from the passengers...many of us stuck for 4 hours waiting to get luggage as there was NO ONE able to handle 300+ passengers. The terminal was closed, so we had to stay overnight and re-book, at our own expense. Aer Lingus is yet to pay us back.
I’m at BDL right now on 8/14 and the plane is still here, unless Aer Lingus restarted service.
It definitely was the same plane. One of the engines was disassembled and people were working on it and also coming in and out of the cabin. It was kind of cool to see.
https://youtu.be/wvkbzP_ajrs
You can hear the whole ATC conversation via the YouTube link
My wife was on that nightmare flight I had to drive to Connecticut the following day to retrieve her.
Pilots and flight crew did an admirable job however true Aer Lingus form after the passengers disembarked they pretty much abandoned them in an Airport that is rural with little facilities or methods of transportation
Classic Aer Lingus for you !!!!
I was on this flight. We were delayed about 30-45 leaving the gate. Then a passenger fainted while taxiing. So we returned to the gate to have paramedics attend to him and eventually offload him.
The pilots and crew did a great job for the entire long day. The experience on the ground was a little rough. I have no idea how long it took them to organize buses to Boston. But there didn't...
I was on this flight. We were delayed about 30-45 leaving the gate. Then a passenger fainted while taxiing. So we returned to the gate to have paramedics attend to him and eventually offload him.
The pilots and crew did a great job for the entire long day. The experience on the ground was a little rough. I have no idea how long it took them to organize buses to Boston. But there didn't seem to be anyone there to help passengers rebook or communicate what to do next. There were very few food options on the unsecured side of BDL. My next flight on a separate ticket with Delta and I was able to book out of BDL for $16 cheaper than my original flight.
This is worthy of a post?
@ ChurnieEls -- 100%. This isn't even borderline. C'mon, I'm an avgeek!
Fortunately, it was a precleared flight. I doubt BDL could handle international arrivals today.
@ Andy -- That's a great point, I imagine that made this much easier.
When you can't get the first diversion / emergency landing right, (stall) try for a second one!!
Many years ago I was flying with a friend from LGA to FLL on USAir. Because of thunderstorms we finally diverted to MIA for more fuel (strange as it's just 30 miles away from FLL). We finally take off back to FLL and as we come out over the Atlantic and back in thunderstorms roll in so we divert to MIA again. At that point they allowed people to get off at MIA or wait...
Many years ago I was flying with a friend from LGA to FLL on USAir. Because of thunderstorms we finally diverted to MIA for more fuel (strange as it's just 30 miles away from FLL). We finally take off back to FLL and as we come out over the Atlantic and back in thunderstorms roll in so we divert to MIA again. At that point they allowed people to get off at MIA or wait again for storms to clear. Finally 4 hours after this all started we took off again back to FLL only to do circles around the Everglades for 30 minutes waiting to get into FLL.
I flew out of Boston Logan late one night in fall on a CX flight to HKG. The rain was literally pouring almost sideways and you could hear the wind howling. Nevertheless, we pushed back and taxied and lined up. I remember seeing the wind blow an empty unsecured cargo container across the ramp like a plastic bag and really hoped one of those wouldn't hit us during our takeoff roll. Eventually we sat out...
I flew out of Boston Logan late one night in fall on a CX flight to HKG. The rain was literally pouring almost sideways and you could hear the wind howling. Nevertheless, we pushed back and taxied and lined up. I remember seeing the wind blow an empty unsecured cargo container across the ramp like a plastic bag and really hoped one of those wouldn't hit us during our takeoff roll. Eventually we sat out the weather for an hour until the wind died down and then it was wheels up. I had my fair share of Krug on that flight. (To settle my nerves, of course.)
I flew out of BDL that day and got excited that Aer Lingus might be preparing to return to BDL…although this is a somewhat interesting story too.