Passengers on Friday’s British Airways flight from London to Hong Kong sure had an adventure…
Continue reading: Ouch: British Airways’ Very Long Flight To Hong Kong
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
From one report:
"...Dept of Health not counting the delay as the start if quarantine..." No words....
Terrible circumstances - what was the load
The BA met office will be getting an earful from the head pilot and flight attendant of BA
If airports have an airside transit hotel facility, would airlines be able to put up passengers there? I'm pretty sure Taipei has one (though who knows if it would be open these days) and the airport is actually closer to Hong Kong than Manila is. If that could be allowed, it might start to have a major influence on where airlines decide to divert.
How many passengers were on the flight? This would’ve been near torture with a full economy class cabin.
Wonder - were they able to get fresh provisions at MNL to feed the pax’s/crew during the 18 delay? Hard to imagine they would have had the catering onboard for such a delay.
And, indeed, good job by the crew.
No surprise. They should never have taken off from LHR if there was any indication the storm was headed to HKG. After all, Chek Lap Kok can have bad crosswinds at the best of times and had a terrible China Airlines flip over crash in 1999 during a typhoon landing shortly after the airport opened. Surely, weather reports 12 hours before scheduled landing should have raised some questions.
How did the pilots and cabin crew not time out? They obviously “rested” in MNL while on the plane but to me that doesn’t seem like it would count as the legal rest requirements that crews have.
The flight from London Heathrow to Hong Kong is 8.5 hours of smooth flight with no turbulence in most of the Atlantic pathways!
Too bad they did not divert to Taipei/Taoyuan or Kaohsiung, both airports in the Republic of China, not to be confused with the People's Republic of China.
Wondered about that as well.
They would have had 2 sets of cockpit crew from London, but that still doesn’t answer the Q about what qualifies as crew rest. Same for the FA’s.
How full was economy? There's a big difference between a full cabin where people had to sit upright the whole time, and fairly empty where they could lie down across multiple seats.
A British Airways 77W has almost 300 seats onboard, and even with a very light load the number of passengers plus cabin crew could easily surpass 100. Given how small airside transit hotels tend to be, I doubt any of them could accommodate these many guests without reservations.
Taipei is not open for transit atm, so even an airside hotel would not make it available.
According to the CAA:
[ https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP371.PDF ]
17.1 "The aircraft operator must notify all crew members in good time of a flying duty period so that sufficient and uninterrupted pre-flight rest can be obtained. When away from base the operator must provide the crew with the opportunity and the facilities for adequate pre-flight rest. The operator must provide suitable accommodation. When flights are carried out at such short notice that it is impracticable for an operator to arrange suitable accommodation, then this responsibility devolves to the aircraft commander."
18.1 "An aircraft commander may, at his discretion, and after taking note of the circumstances of other members of the crew, extend an FDP [Flight Duty Period] beyond that permitted in paragraph 13, Tables A, B, C, or paragraph 23, Table D, provided he is satisfied that the flight can be made safely."
From what I gather, as long as the crew are happy and confident in the situation then the rules can be bent. I think they came to the conclusion that messing about with visas and tests just to have a hotel room (which they wouldn't have had for long after time spent with formalities) wasn't worth it. Also, I'm not sure what the current situation is with Hong Kong route, but earlier in the year, I believe they had two sets of flight crew (due to covid); one would sit it first class while the others fly the outbound leg, and then they'd switch on the return leg. So it is possible that the pilots would have had a first class seat to rest in (which seems sufficient). Regarding rest requirements, I don't think the CAA has an exact definition of rest/accommodation with requirements (other than 'sufficient'), the unions however...
Why does everyone care about the flight attendants and crew and not the passengers.
Holy molly you guys are out of touch
Perhaps you misunderstood the comments about crew “timing out”?
If the crew “times out”, the passengers are stuck and go nowhere….so it’s actually a question that relates to what happens to the passengers, and their well-being.
Heathrow to Hong Kong doesn’t fly over the Atlantic, and it is blocked as a 13 hour flight.
They actually require 2 cockpit crews to fly the segment from LHR-HKG due to the flight time.
The crews are then refreshed in HKG for the return.
But great info provided. Thanks!
So what would you have done? Most people onboard weren't eligible to enter the Philippines due to Covid restrictions.
Atlantic??? The flight flies across Europe and Asia to get to Hong Kong and takes 12 hours.
They should have been able to disembark with appropriate safety precautions in a situation like this.
John, congratulations, you’ve been DeNunzio’d*!
*I honestly can’t tell if the man is trolling, or just off his meds.
I think you missed the most vital part of this story from the passengers perspective. Because they arrived a day late into HK they were all required to reschedule their quarantine hotels (often impossible) and there are (as yet unverified rumours) that any poor sods unable to reschedule were sent to Penny Bay for 21 days, the quarantine concentration camp instead of their expensive hotel rooms. Quite an impact for them on top of the awful experience on the journey. Zero compassion or common sense by HK authorities.
Curious - in addition to carrying extra fuel, was there also additional food and beverage on board? Or did the MNL grounds crew have to resupply them?
Leigh you don't get it!!!!!!
The class action lawyers are already salivating. I've heard about 12 different things they could have done including flying the Hong Kong pilots the Manila and then back tent tent City let's just say timing out was a big big big mistake timing out his meaningless they could have had the plane go somewhere else anywhere else put the plane in a hanger.
They could have flew with more pilots and most importantly they should have never taken off. The class action lawyers are salivating. Anyone who get had the gate check a bag is probably looking at $3 million. Everyone else probably looking about 1 million each. Of course US citizens are 30% above.
Please remove this as a political comment with no reason and no basis this is a pure outwardly attack trying to bring politics into this this is absolutely meaningless and adds nothing to the conversation please delete
A story in the South China Morning Post says there were about 100 passengers, and the crew rested in shifts during the delay so they could operate the continuation. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3151857/tropical-storm-turns-london-hong-kong-flight-british-airways
Not the least bit realistic, as quarantine requirements are even more stringent in Taiwan.
You haven't mentioned the chaos that came after with the bureaucracy and the 21 day hotel qurantine being a day earlier many people were left stranded and unable to exit the airport since their arrival date and the hotel booking were different...
Hi. i can imagine how frustrating it was for all the passenger, but safety must comes first, and Im glad everything were safe.
So travelers from the UK are allowed to enter Hongkong for transit? my friend is going home on November to Manila and He's going with BA to Hongkong and changed plane to Manila. I hope someone can answer my query please
Thank you