As reported by The Aviation Herald, passengers on last night’s Lufthansa flight from Boston to Munich were in for quite an adventure….
Continue reading: Ouch: Lufthansa A340 Returns To Boston Twice
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
As in this case it was a maintenance failure of the aircraft, then the airline must compensate all passengers with lodging and meals, and accommodate them on another flight.
Sure thing with the 600€ compensation, but anyone that wanted/needed to get there by the 9th was royally f'ed over... Any information if LH sent an extra plane to BOS today?
We were recently on UA219 ORD to HNL on Nov 5th. After 8 hours on the plane we went 3 miles (all on the ground) and ended up where we started. UA somehow found a second set of 787-10 pilots and a 3rd set of FAs. A terrible start to the trip but the got us there same day. Long delays suck...but just gotta roll with the punches.
How are these aborted flights handled in terms of earning miles? Or do they not count because it didn't make it to its destination?
That's a lot of money wasted on fuel (and pretty bad for the environment I assume).
Why didn't they just continue to MUC? The plane has 4 engines. If it was a minor issue the second time around, why didn't they just shut that one down and continue to their destination.
I am wondering what they repaired or thought they repaired the first time. It was subcontractors and not LH employees as LH has no base in BOS. LH probably flew in mechanics the next day. Just sayin
I agree that it's a huge waste of money and terrible to think that they had to dump fuel twice. However, even with having four engines, safety protocols would dictate that with engine issues and still within a certain radius from their departure airport they have to return. Would they have had those issues midnight somewhere south of Greenland, they would've probably analyzed the situation and either diverted to somewhere in the UK or continue to Germany...
Between 600EUR , hotels and food for every passenger and whatever dumping a good chuck of whatever an A340 holds
In jet A that’s a very expensive flight for LH
That has to be one of the funniest comments I’ve read. I’m thrilled you’re not flying planes - but would not object to your being subject to the type of aviation decision making for which you advocate. Cheers!
Lucky, did you see the potential negative changes coming to the Alaska Visa Signature card? Companion fares might soon require $6,000 in prior year spending! Please write an article on this.
Links below:
https://thepointsguy.com/news/alaska-airlines-credit-card-changes/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/yptn6e/changes_to_boa_alaska_visa/
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/bank-of-america-alaska-airlines-card-70000-miles-100-offer-plus-card-changes/
It makes me nervous thinking I will be flying in April with this airlines. I hope there aren't any issues.
you sure about that?
Insurance is for accidents, not operational problems.
LH took a significant financial hit on this flight. There simply is no sugar-coating it.
If one engine is inop it basically becomes an airbrake the diameter of the engine. To compensate you need to add thrust on the other engines and add rudder input which also increases drag. You are also altitude limited on 3 engines which increases drag as you’re in denser air. Long story short they can’t make it to MUC due to substantially impaired gas milage.
It seems like D-AIHP is still on BOS. Yesterdays flight (D-AIHI) operated as scheduled and will be landing in Munich in about 30 minutes.
Not sure what LH9581 is: that flight is scheduled to depart BOS today at 18:00. Maybe they are trying to get D-AIHP back to Deutschland.
Haha. Have you read the article about how it took Lufthansa 34 hours to not send a replacement jet to Istanbul?
I suppose passengers where rebooked.
It's better Safe than sorry. Nobody got hurt or Die. Good that pilot return then lose plane & passengers.
There is an extra set of safety requirements to begin an oceanic crossing. With one engine already having issues they don't have the required redundancies to start the crossing. crossing.
In the history of oceanic crossings there hasn't been an aircraft lost due to engine trouble far from land. United had a 777 that was a close call, but they made it to Hawaii safely.
United has not had the best of luck with engines going to Hawaii. Flight delays for maintenance is something to appreciate rather than complain about.
2 different 777 flights with united going to HNL have had uncontaminated engine failures that certainly would have resulted in forced ditchings if the failure had occurred anywhere near the mid point of the ocean crossing. The first one occured within 45 minutes of HNL. If the engine had failed even 20 minutes earlier, passengers would be swimming.
The second one was the incident with parts falling near Denver. If it had occurred very far from land they also would have been swimming.
Especially when there is an ocean crossing involved, delays for maintenance are welcome. I once experienced a rejected take off due to engine trouble leaving HNL on a Continental DC-10. After less than an hour of parking near the maintenance hangar we returned to the runway to try again. I really would have preferred the opportunity to get off the aircraft and let them really make sure it was fixed before taking me across the ocean.
Every airline uses a strategy based on their financial position. A startup would be bankrupt after one flight being forced to dump fuel and return due to an unruly passenger if there wasn't insurance for the airlines that choose to insure those events. So, insurance is not just for accidents.
This is not a situation requiring insurance, at least not Lufthansa's insurance. The engine manufacturer will cover all of this. When you spend many hundreds of millions on engines you get solid reliability guarantees.
LH is not taking any financial hit for this. Even if LH was responsible for the expenses, it wouldn't even be noticable in the quarterly income statement. This is very routine.
LH is one of the best airlines in the world. They have an excellent safety record and one of if not the best maintained fleet in the world. I have zero doubts this crew did the right thing by turning back. Safety is job one at LH, Glad everyone is safely on the ground.
Nobody but the environment, all that super high octane fuel dumped on who?, what? Where? Fine Lufthansa big time!@@
I was on this flight. LH was zero help - gave us a number to call but didn't help with rebooking or finding a hotel. Thankfully we were with a knowledgeable travel agent who hopped behind the counter to help get our group rebooked the next day. Then we had issues coming home and also had to spend an unexpected night in Munich. It was an adventure but we are all safe!