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…
Continue reading: American 777 Diverts Over Mysterious Cargo Hold Noises
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I’m sure the simplest (and most boring) answer is the correct one — cargo that wasn’t properly secured.
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 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.
@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.
Hi, Ben. Small point but the aircraft reg is N717AN rather than N9717AN.
Love the blog. Keep up the great work.
"...the flight ended up being canceled for the flight."
Think that should be "night".
Spooky noises from the cargo hold on Halloween? Yeesh. This feels like a Twilight Zone/Outer Limits episode.
You said "the flight ended up being canceled for the flight." Do you mean for the night?