United Flight Diverted To Midway Island

My grandfather was a veteran of the Battle of Midway. If I was on that flight I would have thought how different an experience he would have had in an airplane (he was in the Army Air Corps). I myself served in the Air Force thankful not under the same circumstances, but whenever I am in a jam it gives me comfort to think about those I know that suffered far worse.

How did they get on and off the plane? If the island is mostly deserted, I assume there are no jet bridges or rollaway stairs? Google satellite view of the landing strip shows nothing but tarmac.

@ Robert -- Based on the video it looks like there are stairs. I'd guess they keep a spare around in the event of diversions.

Thx - didn't see the video.

Just another reason to avoid UA at all costs. In over 20 years of business travel, I can count the number of times a UA or CO flight actually went off without a hitch on one hand – and have fingers left over.

But I'd wager the people in Business had full-flat seats, so it's all good!

So was this Delta or United?

Either that Flyertalk member (Pazu) was lying or UA committed the biggest of airline security lapses, by letting luggage fly without the owners. That's Security 101. My money is on the FTer lying. Most members there love to embellish stories to hear themselves talking.

A.S. : thats actually fairly common practice.

@ Geoff -- It was United. The Delta footage in the video was of a previous diversion a couple of years back.

@ Darth Chocolate -- This flight is actually operated by one of United's domestic 777s. No flat beds on here!
http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/United_Airlines/United_Airlines_Boeing_777-200_8.php

@ A. S. -- I believe that's typically an airline policy and not an actual regulation. Could be wrong, though.

Re: PPBM (Positive Passenger Baggage Matching). My recollection is that if a passenger voluntarily separates from his bags, the airline is only required to pull the bags if they haven't been screened. Since everybody's bags get scanned by TSA these days, PPBM is a non-issue.

*Source: I was a ramp for United Express for a two year period surrounding 9/11. My information could be old or my memory foggy. But I'm not seeing an issue here unless procedures have changed. I further recall that at the time, certain passengers would have their bags flagged as PPBM, in which case they MUST travel together.

It's funny...after seeing this story on the news, I thought about all the maintenance-related comments that were made to Cranky Flyer's recent article about the mess that is United (although HNL-GUM is an ex-CO route, so I wonder about the equipment. I actually flew this route several years ago when it was still Continental). http://crankyflier.com/2014/07/10/blaming-uniteds-problems-on-continental-or-vice-versa-is-exactly-the-problem/

Re the stairs to the 777 while on MDY, it was reported on FT that the stairway was three feet short of a/c door. So crew members and personnel from MDY served as human chains to bridge the three foot difference. Going forward, if MDY will always be considered a diversion for crossing the North Pacific, I'd say airlines should invest in and store stairways at these islands.

Great job to the crew members.

I'm shocked that they let a passenger voluntarily separate from their hold luggage. This would definitely not be allowed in the UK, that stopped after the Lockerbie disaster. Baggage can only fly without the passenger if they have no choice in the matter. Given they're not happy that x-raying a mobile phone in hand luggage is now good enough and they want it switched on I don't see how x-raying hold luggage is sufficient.

So regarding the CNN story, what in the hell does the MH flight and Asiana flight have to do with anything, aviation reporting tends to be incredibly lazy.

@A.S.

I cancelled a Southwest ticket very late (but still 10 minutes before departure) once and my bags flew because they didn't have time to pull them off. Got them back the next day.

I would rather have been able look around midway rather than just sit in a hanger whilst waiting.

@Robert @lucky @trust778

MDY remains open as a diversion airport for ETOPS reasons, not a whole lot of options out there. The few dozen US Fish and Wildlife Service personnel who live there are used to greeting the occasional diversion, although military is probably more common than civilian.

They have a set of air stairs, but they discovered a few years ago when the Delta 747 landed that they weren't tall enough. So the on-island shop hastily built a few extra wooden steps to put on top and let the passengers deplane. I imagine they used the same one this time, if the doors on a 777 are as high up.

That "flying-with-your-bags" policy was after Lockerbie in the 80's. Given now we see terrorists obviously don't care if they're on board when the bomb goes off, I'd say that policy is moot if still being followed.

Some terrorists might not care but I'm sure it must put off some others. Still seems like a sensible policy to me, unlike some of the other security procedures.

I keep trying to find a reasonable way to get their without an emergency landing.

Glad everyone's fine although a $500 certificate is a very low amount to be compensated since they flew passengers back to HNL instead of GUM.

Anyhow, the problem seemed to be with the equipment fan.

If anyone's interesting in reading more, search for "Issue In UA Cockpit 777 Diverts From HI To Midway" thread on Airliners.net

@Rapid Travel Chai

Your only other option is to volunteer for a few months.

http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Midway_Atoll/what_we_do/get_involved.html

Note that UA did not deliver the passengers to their destination (GUM), but instead returned them to HNL. I'm sure that was easier for UA, but just one more (very significant) inconvenience for the passengers.

My wife, daughter, and I were on that flight. Don't know if anyone will see this so long after the event, but I can clear up some issues. United severely downplayed what was going on with the plane in their statement to the media. They said it was merely a cooling fan issue. But when I woke up, it wasn't just an odor, there was a smoky haze in the plane. At that point, it had not been announced that we had already turned around and were headed back to Honolulu. But ten minutes later, the captain announced that we needed to land on Midway, which would take 40 minutes from that point. It was obvious the situation was serious if he was willing to land on a runway not set up for big jets. He dumped the fuel prior to landing as well, to lighten the load so we could stop quick enough. But after landing, the pilot told us that during the flight, the electrical systems began to fail. He said the radar and the radio systems both went out. Something was burning in the electrical systems and knocking them out one by one. By God's grace, we made it to Midway before full failure. I was preparing my heart to meet the Lord. As for touring Midway, we could not have seen anything since it was in the middle of the night. And when the replacement plane came, we had to hurry and get seated to be able to take off before dawn because the albatrosses of Midway get active at dawn and daytime takeoffs and landings are impossible. It was quite an experience that I won't soon forget. If you look up any of the photos of us waiting in the gym, I am the guy standing with a red shirt, gray hair, and a camera bag on my shoulder with my back to the camera.