Flights divert all the time, for a variety of reasons. However, the diversion of a long haul flight last night is one of the stranger ones that we’ve seen in some time…
In this post:
American 777 returns to Buenos Aires over suspicious noises
This incident happened on Thursday, October 31, 2024, and involves American Airlines flight AA954, scheduled to fly from Buenos Aires (EZE) to New York (JFK). The flight was operated by a 12-year-old Boeing 777-300ER with the registration code N9717AN.
The flight was supposed to depart Buenos Aires at 9:00PM, and ended up taking off at 9:17PM, more or less on time. However, after takeoff, passengers and crew in the cabin heard loud sounds coming from the cargo hold, with the belief being that there was someone in there who was trying to make themselves known.
The pilots were alerted of the situation, and they made the decision to discontinue the flight, and return to Buenos Aires. Authorities on the ground in Argentina were told of a possible security threat in the cargo hold, and prepared accordingly.
The jet first flew northwest for around an hour, until it was near Cordoba. Then it turned around, and landed back in Buenos Aires at 11:19PM local time, after a 2hr2min flight.
What caused the mysterious cargo hold noises?
Given that authorities were warned of a potential security threat, a full scale emergency response was activated once the plane landed back in Buenos Aires. The belief was that there was someone in the cargo hold. Did someone unintentionally get stuck in the cargo hold? Was there a stowaway? Did someone have bad intentions?
Given all the unknowns, armed police stormed the cargo hold of the jet, to determine what was going on. Video footage of that is quite something, as it must be weird to watch this unfold while you’re sitting on a plane.
Here’s where it gets strange. Media in Argentina reports that upon searching the cargo hold, nothing suspicious was discovered. There were no people in there, so the source of the suspicious noises couldn’t be determined… what a mystery. Unfortunately at this point the crew had timed out, so the flight ended up being canceled for the night.
For what it’s worth, we’ve seen some situations in the past where ground workers got stuck in a cargo hold, and tried to make noise to get attention and be rescued. When that has happened, it was typically because someone took a nap in the cargo hold, and didn’t wake up before it was closed. But that doesn’t appear to be the case here. This almost has the same vibe as the ghosts of Eastern Air Lines flight 401…
Bottom line
An American Boeing 777 scheduled to fly from Buenos Aires to New York ended up returning to its origin after loud noises were heard in the cargo hold. An emergency response was activated, though nothing out of the ordinary was discovered. The flight still ended up being canceled, given that the crew timed out.
We have in the past sometimes seen people get stuck in cargo holds, so this is a real mystery, since that wasn’t the case here.
What do you make of this cargo hold incident?
You said "the flight ended up being canceled for the flight." Do you mean for the night?
Spooky noises from the cargo hold on Halloween? Yeesh. This feels like a Twilight Zone/Outer Limits episode.
"...the flight ended up being canceled for the flight."
Think that should be "night".
Hi, Ben. Small point but the aircraft reg is N717AN rather than N9717AN.
Love the blog. Keep up the great work.
I am curious what AA crew time out limits are on long international flights. This flight 11.0 hr. Now DFW-BNE has a 16.5 hr flight. With 2 full flight crews when do they time out?
Earlier this year, LAX-SYD was cancelled 2 days in a row due to time out issues for various reasons not maintenance. Our flight flew 4 days later on Qantas.
What a spooky event, it was on Halloween after all
So what did the pilot squawk?
7500 or 7600 or 7700?
All seems appropriate
No expert but surely getting the passengers and crew off would have been in order, especially if it was a stowaway who could have been armed, bullets flying around the hold and fuel tanks don’t mix well.
Completely agree. I would have been scared by the noise and then the armed police entry; it was necessary, but why not remove the paxs first.
I’m sure the simplest (and most boring) answer is the correct one — cargo that wasn’t properly secured.
@Redacted
No way. Then the plane could have lost balance and crashed.
@D3Kingg: That would take something very, very large for a 777. An unsecured item or two, especially inside of a ULD, would not come anywhere close to changing the CG enough to crash a 777.
The only times I know of where something with anywhere near the size and authority of a 777 crashing due to out-of-balance CG were huge items like entire armored vehicles coming loose in the hold.