Nighthawk From UK - Scotland, joined Sep 2001, 4989 posts, RR: 38 Reply 1, posted (7 years 2 weeks 2 days ago) and read 3545 times:
Quote: Jacqui O'Sullivan, SAA's spokesperson, said it was not clear what had caused the windscreen to crack, but the aircraft would have been able to complete the flight despite it.
The captain, however, decided rather to return to London.
A wise move I suppose, better to divert to london than to continue and risk having to divert while over remote parts of Africa.
Quote:
For instance, the airline helped a friend of Cook's, who was to have left for the US shortly after landing at Johannesburg, to reach his destination on time.
Why would anyone route Heathrow - Johannesburg - USA..? Its a bit out of the way!
Leezyjet From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2001, 4041 posts, RR: 55 Reply 7, posted (7 years 2 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 2763 times:
I sure as sh!t wouldn't want to continue over one of the most remote continents in the world as far as aviation is concerned in an a/c that had a crack in the windscreen. Those cracks can spread pretty quickly making the situation much worse and I wouldn't want to be in that situation over central Africa.
Good decision by the f/deck to return.
"She Rolls, 45 knots, 90, 135, nose comes up to 20 degrees, she's airborne - She flies, Concorde Flies"
GEEZ From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 8, posted (7 years 2 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 2763 times:
Quoting RootsAir (Reply 6): i'm sure this thread had concerned an AA, UA, or BA flight it would have 50 + replies
I don't see the significance of the above comment. - We know what caused the return to LHR and the most likely reason it did return to LHR instead of diverting to BCN or MAD... The question of the aircraft's registration was answered by myself...
What more can be said about this topic?!! It's pretty much case closed, court adjourned!
Schipholjfk From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 579 posts, RR: 6 Reply 9, posted (7 years 2 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 2559 times:
Quoting Kl692 (Reply 5): Quoting Nighthawk (Reply 1):
Why would anyone route Heathrow - Johannesburg - USA..? Its a bit out of the way!
I think they meant to say USA-London-Johannesburg.
> For instance, the airline helped a friend of Cook's, who was to have left for the US shortly after landing at Johannesburg, to reach his destination on time.
HUH? How is it USA-London-JNB when the article says, "who was to have left for the US shortly AFTER landing at JNB..."
It's strange! Why would anyone fly this long way back to USA (if true)?
SA7700 From South Africa, joined Dec 2003, 2916 posts, RR: 20 Reply 11, posted (7 years 2 weeks 1 day ago) and read 2427 times:
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Quoting Schipholjfk (Reply 9): It's strange! Why would anyone fly this long way back to USA (if true)?
You get strange people, like me, who are mileage whores. I have flown from SYD-JNB and connected on to JNB-JFK-SFO and JNB-IAD-ORD flights, about 3-4 hours after I have landed in JNB.
Rgds
SA7700
When you are doing stuff that nobody has done before, there is no manual – Kevin McCloud
VC10DC10 From United States of America, joined Apr 2006, 959 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (7 years 2 weeks 23 hours ago) and read 2347 times:
Out of curiosity, how often do these events happen, and what is the probable cause? I'm assuming that any FOD would have been noted immediately and a replacement made before something like this happens in flight. Could it be a result of icing? (Realize that this is more of a Tech question, but since it's here, and since we need to make 50-60 replies I thought I'd just ask.)
LTBEWR From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 12333 posts, RR: 12 Reply 13, posted (7 years 2 weeks 16 hours ago) and read 2164 times:
Despite carefully designed framing, the window can be subject to stresses as the body of the a/c will flex a little in operation, tempature changes, FOD, improperly cleaned (scratched) and the coatings to reduce glare/sunlight. Think of your car. Many older front wheel drive cars had cowl and window frame designs that were not as rigid as later models and stressed the windsheild/windscreen causing stress cracks.
The pilot did the right thing here and chose to go to LHR which I suspect was less than an hour's additional travel and which offered excellent MX facilities, possible connections for travelers to continue with.
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