Passengers traveling on Lufthansa’s longest flight earlier this week were in for quite the tour of South America, including an unusual mayday call.
Lufthansa 747 diverts to Asuncion, then Sao Paulo
Lufthansa flight LH510 is the longest distance flight in the Star Alliance carrier’s network, as it covers a distance of 7,133 miles, and ordinarily takes a little over 13 hours. However, for the flight departing on Monday, July 7, 2025, the journey took way longer than that, and the flight never reached its intended destination.
The flight was operated by a Boeing 747-8 with the registration code D-ABYM, and was scheduled to depart at 9:40PM and arrive at 6:25AM the following morning. The plane ended up departing Frankfurt just a little behind schedule, taking off at 10:28PM, and began its long journey to Buenos Aires.
Unfortunately upon approach to the airport, the weather conditions had deteriorated, with very limited visibility. So the plane entered a holding pattern at an altitude of 7,000 feet, with the hopes of weather improving. After holding for an extended period of time and conditions not improving, the pilots made the decision to divert.
Asuncion, Paraguay (ASU), was decided as the diversion point, so the plane started flying in that direction. That’s a 663-mile flight, so it was quite a journey. Weather there was fine, and the jumbo jet touched down in Asuncion at 8AM, 14hr32min after it first departed Frankfurt.
The plane then spent just under an hour on the ground in Asuncion, presumably to refuel, and hope for conditions to improve in Buenos Aires. The jet once again took off from the airport at 8:56AM.
The aircraft flew south to Buenos Aires, and entered a holding pattern, though unfortunately conditions still hadn’t improved. This time around, the decision was made to divert to Sao Paulo, Brazil (GRU), which was a 1,069-mile flight from Buenos Aires.
I imagine the decision to divert to Sao Paulo came down to the crew timing out, and therefore, it was best to divert to a station with a lot of flights, and where Lufthansa has a presence, so that customers can be assisted.
The plane ended up touching down in Sao Paulo at 1:04PM, 4hr8min after the plane diverted to Asuncion.
At that point, the flight was canceled, given that the crew timed out, as passengers had been onboard for roughly 20 hours. Passengers were rebooked on other flights to Buenos Aires, or their final destination.
As of now, the plane is still on the ground in Sao Paulo, so it remains to be seen if it’s ferried back to Frankfurt empty, or if it’s flown to Buenos Aires, and will operate a flight with passengers from there.
The Lufthansa 747 declared a mayday on its final approach
It’s interesting to note that during its approach to Sao Paulo, the pilots of the Lufthansa 747 declared a mayday, which is the highest level of distress that pilots can express, reflecting a life-threatening emergency.
So, what was the cause of that mayday call? An airplane spotter YouTube channel posted a video of the plane landing in Sao Paulo, including the air traffic control audio.
The air traffic controller asked the Lufthansa pilots what the reason was for the mayday, and they indicated that it was due to “crew fatigue and fuel shortage.” That’s interesting:
- That’s beyond my area of expertise, but is crew fatigue actually considered a legitimate reason to declare a mayday? It’s interesting how that’s mentioned before the fuel shortage, which makes me wonder if they really had mayday fuel levels
- Obviously the flight had a roundabout routing, but you’d think they would’ve loaded up enough fuel given the weather situation, and I imagine Sao Paulo was already their backup destination, so what caused the plane to not have enough fuel?
I recognize it’s standard to roll out fire trucks when there’s a mayday call, though it’s a bit odd to see four fire trucks following a Lufthansa 747 due to a combination of lack of fuel and crew fatigue, since neither seem like they’d be assisted much by fire trucks.
Bottom line
Passengers traveling on Lufthansa’s longest route were in for a long day, as the Frankfurt to Buenos Aires flight first diverted to Asuncion and then Sao Paulo, before ultimately being canceled. What’s interesting is that during the second diversion, the pilots declared a mayday, apparently due to crew fatigue and lack of fuel.
What a rough day for all involved, but sometimes Mother Nature has a mind of its own…
What do you make of this Lufthansa 747 double diversion?
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