A TUI Boeing 787 first officer recently became incapacitated during a transatlantic flight, leading to an unexpected 24-hour stopover for passengers in Maine.
Continue reading: TUI Boeing 787 Diverts Due To Incapacitated Pilot (Yep, It Was Food Poisoning)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
There's a massive cbp operation in Bangor and they do handle the military rotators constantly as long as it's within like normal hours which this was.
The hotel rooms might have been a logistical challenge but maybe not that hard
No they don’t. This would fall under extraordinary circumstances and no compensation would be due.
In 1985, I flew on a British Airtours L1011 charter from MIA-LGW-MIA. On the way back, we had a scheduled stop at Bangor to refuel and because of a hurricane threatening Florida, we had to overnight. I was an unaccompanied minor (there were 3 of us) and they put us up at the airport Hilton (I think it was a Hilton). Everyone else had to be farmed out (no pun intended) to local B&Bs and guesthouses. I'm sure it was quite the undertaking, but if they figured out the last-minute logistics pre-internet, I'm sure they can figure it out in 2022.
I believe that there's a solid number of private/GA transatlantic flights ex-Bangor
I know this isn't a film blog, but the whole "food poisoning" and "chicken vs. fish" thing in "Airplane!" is itself a reference to the 1956 film "Flight into Danger," which sparked a wave of adaptations from the 50s to the 80s.
Not sure why I'm mentioning this. But those films are worth checking out if you're an aviation enthusiast and into old movies.
Isn't it the coolest thing ever how in ATC recordings whenever there's even a slight emergency everybody is genuinely insanely helpful, understanding, caring, and often goes out of their way to assist and comfort? Obviously it's controllers job to do that and pilot's job to keep cool - but oftentimes I hear people go far beyond pure professionalism.
It took 8 hours to get all passengers sorted and into hotels. A scheduled TUI flight the following day made a stop in Bangor to drop off a crew to fly it onto Melbourne
Bangor's incredibly well equipped to handle something like this with a history dating back to the days when fuel stops were needed transatlantic. The airport has an entire international concourse with jetbridges that sits dormant until something like this incident happens or a military charter arrives (which is fairly common). At the start of the Iraq war the community got together to start the Maine Troop Greeters which made an effort to meet and welcome back troops from overseas given it was often their first steps back on US soil. I believe that the group is still active today. There are also significantly more nearby hotels than an airport like Bangor would typically need.
Ben, I understand your curiosity at TUIs route network to Florida but it has some excellent reasons for it. They are a package holiday seller and if you are a Brit on holiday at the end of October the Med islands are shut down and the weather is not ideal. You will be able to spot that the same set of "regional" airports will tend to also have a 1-2x weekly TUI to Cancun, Barbados and other Caribbean tourist centres.
In particular - Disney Orlando is a huge draw to people who do not want to drive from the UK regions for 4 hours to Lhr with their two little ones in the car.
Food poisoning takes at least 7 hours to take effect after eating the bad item. So the implication here is that it was not the food on the plane that made the pilot sick, but rather something eaten before the flight.
And you would think other people on the flight would have also gotten sick if the fish or chicken was bad.
Is it still true that the 2 pilots have to eat different meals?
It was a bad week to give up eating meat. I didn't realize I needed an "Airplane" fix. It all came back to me like that night in Algiers.
Hotel rooms shouldn't have been a large issue - it's worth remembering that Bangor is squarely within Maine vacation country, a short drive away from Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. There many hotels in the area - people use it as a home base for tourism.
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Bangor is a customs services airport so no issues on that regard provided there was some advanced notice. Hotel rooms were probably a bit more challenging, but they wouldn't have been far from Bar Harbor so I'm sure they could have worked out the lodging.
How is it that the pilot was the only one with food poisoning? Did the other 300 people on board not eat?
How’s the pilot doing? Did he have to be hospitalized? No word in the article.
TUI MLB op is focused towards their Disney holiday / Orlando package business as well as cruises. They're usually a bit cheaper than BA or Virgin as well as offering more regional departure points as Richard says. It used to be based out of Sanford but Melbourne managed to tempt them across recently.
Florida is very popular with Brits although a lot more expensive recently due to inflation and the poor £/$ exchange rate so may taper off a little next year.
The 787s are based in many of their regional bases or position in to operate these long hauls. They also use them to operate short haul flights especially during the summer months
Staff illness that causes crew not to be available before an aircraft takes off does trigger compensation, as the airline is expected to have reserve crews available. However, if a pilot falls I’ll in flight, this is not something an airline can reasonably plan for - it would be unviable to roster reserve crew on each flight for this.
So, what you're saying is that Airplane! is a documentary now? 🙂
All of the cool stories have an insurmountable issue and a happy ending, so the passengers get that.
Who made the diagnosis of food poisoning?
Based on what symptoms?
What was the pilot's vaxx status?
The toxic spike protein generated by the body induced by the vaxx makes everything worse: cancer, cardiovascular, digestive, etc.
The vaxx produces a toxic protein spike making factory throughout your body with known shutoff switch.
Illustrates again the problems, some deadly, of having only two cockpit crew on over-ocean flights.
Yeah right, it was only the fish, and the pilot cleaned the bones on his serving.
A guy got lost for a few days on a hike in Arkansas. All he'd have had to do was go downhill or follow along downstream until he got to the Buffalo River and take it from there. He was found by searchers. Chances are, he had a bout of 'vaxx' issue occur while hiking.
Back in the last century I have been diverted to Bangor, ME a few times. It has never been a problem.
Bangor is a nice little regional airport that gets flight diversions like these from time to time.
Fun fact: as the easternmost ‘major’ airport in the continental US, the runway was modified to accommodate an emergency landing by the Space Shuttles. Consequently Bangor has a massive runway for an airport of its size!
I used to live in Melbourne, Fla and in the winter months there were lots of UK and Canadian visitors. The convenience stores would start including Players and some of the other Commonwealth brands for a few months as well.
May I say I was one of those passengers along with my fiance 3 sons one of which is disabled and one that is 6 months and being diverted for 36 hours with no lugage till the end no baby milk no continance products for my disabled son who found the situation very stressful was a joke they locked every one up in one room for over 24 hours before deciding to place every one in hotels promising tranfers back to airport next day of which they didnt send the whole thing was badly excicuted they didn't even send tranfer bus when it was time to leave florida what a joke
May I say I was one of those passengers along with my fiance 3 sons one of which is disabled and one that is 6 months and being diverted for 36 hours with no lugage till the end no baby milk no continance products for my disabled son who found the situation very stressful was a joke they locked every one up in one room for over 24 hours before deciding to place every one in hotels promising tranfers back to airport next day of which they didnt send the whole thing was badly excicuted they didn't even send tranfer bus when it was time to leave florida what a joke
BGR is very used to TATL diversions - they do a remarkable job. Often get TATL diverts in winter because of snow at JFK and EWR.
For a plane that was on the ground for a little over 24 hours, how did you manage to spend an entire 24 hour day locked up in a room and then spend a night in a hotel?
Only 2 pilots on a 8.5hr flight? Flying in the states they would have to obey our Federal Aviation Regulations that require 3 pilots when the flight is scheduled to exceed 8 hours.
Why was the pilot the only one to get food poisoning? Usually they eat the same food the passengers eat.
Hello from Bangor, ME. Our airport may be small in terms of traffic but it is an International airport with Customs agents. BGR has one of the longest runways on the east coast a little over 2 miles long (3.487 KM). A great place to take a shit.
Bangor supports a ton of private international flights. They land and clear customs and immigration there to avoid the hassles at the main airports.
No one died on this flight. The crew put safety first and terminated at a suitable airport. There used to be jets with 3 man crews - B747, B727, DC-10, L-1011 come to mind. But travelers didn't want to spend any extra money for the extra crew member. So, all those airplanes have gone away.
The other issue is they could not borrow an officer from a partner airline. If it was Air France or KLM for example perhaps they could "borrow" one from Delta for example. TUI does not have partners or many partners that I know of. Hopefully the passengers were properly compensated.
Regarding your comment about the international flights, it just shows you did not consider the whole situation or did not do your research. Would think many flights to there from Canada, for example.
You forgot the time change. The UK is 5 hours ahead of Eastern time. So basically 5 hours in a hotel to do whatever I guess. Not sure what being disabled has to do with anything though