I have a question for you all here today:
Have you been on a flight that was diverted?
Reasons for diversions could be because of an emergency, hostile passengers, and airport troubles.

One time I was on Virgin America headed to LAX, and the airport got shutdown because someone hacked the ATC. This turned out to affect a lot of airports near there, except San Francisco. So we diverted to SFO, stayed for an hour, then flew back to LAX. It's a short but full story.

Never been diverted, but last year I flew Sydney to Launceston (down in Tasmania) on Virgin Australia. When we get into the Launceston area, it started to rain and the pilot said that we were going to go into a hold until it clears off. So we just flew around the countryside for a while, which was a nice way to see more of the island.

I was on a flight diverted from JFK to SJU because of crew timeout. Sat at the gate (without being able to leave the plane for immigration reasons) for 3 hours until a new crew could be found.

Almost 40 years ago I was also on a flight that diverted back to its origin airport after an engine failure and fire.

I was on a flight from LTN to DUB, the plane was running out of fuel when we were circling DUB, the plane had to be refuelled at LPL

LAHockey wrote:

Have you been on a flight that was diverted? Reasons for diversions could be because of an emergency, hostile passengers, and airport troubles.

Or weather.. that is a good one.

IIRC I've been diverted only once, for weather, I've been quite fortunate really, touch wood. Out of MEL (departure), DPO (as the destination) and LST (alternate) are around an 80 minute so drive transport was organised to get pax back to the original destination.

csturdiv wrote:

Never been diverted, but last year I flew Sydney to Launceston (down in Tasmania) on Virgin Australia. When we get into the Launceston area, it started to rain and the pilot said that we were going to go into a hold until it clears off. So we just flew around the countryside for a while, which was a nice way to see more of the island.

Happened to me on QF last year from MEL to LST, but it was at night in torrential rain. Not the same experience as yours.

We went into a hold, at least half an hour, but it didn't really ease off that much so we came in anyway, it was obviously deemed safe enough to do so.

I thought the Q400 was really extra good to fly on after that night.

Years ago I was on UA LHR-IAD, we were diverted to Bangor, Maine, because Cat Stephens was on board and considered a no flyer. Last month I was on QATAR DOH-BKK and was diverted to another Thai airport (still not sure which one) due to thunder storms in BKK. Was there about two hours. There was another QATAR plane there which had been going HAN-BKK and diverted. There was only one small fuel truck there so took some time to get enough fuel on board to take off again.

Delta 757-300. Took off from MSP to SEA. 10-15 minutes later I notice we weren't very high and not climbing either. Then I see the destination on the IFE screen become "Minneapolis/St. Paul" rather than "Seattle".

Sure enough, 5 minutes later the pilot announces we're going back due to a flap problem. We approached, I assume, faster than usual, and a go-around was initiated. So we first circled once and then landed safely.

I don't remember any other diversions.

TonyBurr wrote:

Years ago I was on UA LHR-IAD, we were diverted to Bangor, Maine, because Cat Stephens was on board and considered a no flyer. Last month I was on QATAR DOH-BKK and was diverted to another Thai airport (still not sure which one) due to thunder storms in BKK. Was there about two hours. There was another QATAR plane there which had been going HAN-BKK and diverted. There was only one small fuel truck there so took some time to get enough fuel on board to take off again.

I remember watching on Ultimate Airport Dubai on NatGeo that Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stephens) could not check-in for DXB-JFK as the ESTA/immigration system kept rejecting him. Don't remember how it was resolved though.

VapourTrails wrote:

LAHockey wrote:

Have you been on a flight that was diverted? Reasons for diversions could be because of an emergency, hostile passengers, and airport troubles.

Happened to me on QF last year from MEL to LST, but it was at night in torrential rain. Not the same experience as yours.

We went into a hold, at least half an hour, but it didn't really ease off that much so we came in anyway, it was obviously deemed safe enough to do so.

I thought the Q400 was really extra good to fly on after that night.

Luckily my flight was during the day, which gave some great sites over the green countryside and an impressive rainbow. Sadly I didn't have my camera ready as I had my tablet out watching some Walking Dead.

I work for a software company that develops software used in the logistics industry, In our package we provide online flight schedules so that our clients can look up flights to book cargo onto, and there was talk of adding in real-time tracking to let clients know if a flight has been diverted as well as publishing that onto the tracking sites that we have (similar to other online tracking). Our CEO was talking to the product manager of that area of the program and was saying he was not sure it was needed as he does a lot of flights and has never been diverted. He asked the product manager and he also said he has never been diverted. A few weeks later the product manager was returning to Sydney from Los Angeles on American. A few hours after take off, there was a cabin call if there was a doctor on-board, then about 30 minutes after that the pilot said that they were going to divert to Honolulu for medical reasons. The crew timed out and they had to stay in Honolulu until the next day. The product manager got onto Skype during the Sydney office hours and called our CEO and was like "That talk about not being diverted....". Now there are more talks of incorporating that into the services we offer.

One of my first ever flights: Airtours MD83 from CAI to LGW. Diverted to ATH because the toilets were full!

I've had a few diversions over my time. Most recent was due to weather earlier this year - SEA to ORD diverted to MKE for a couple hours.

Another favorite was HSV to DFW diverting to GGG and crew timing out meaning a lovely evening of severe storms in Longview.

The oldest one was when I was a child (early 1990s) flying WDH-FRA and we had to divert to Yaounde due to mechanical issues and we ended up stuck there for something like 18 hours. Good times.

July 23, 2016. FRA - BUD on LH. Diverted to VIE due to a thunderstorm at BUD. LH cancelled the return flight, so they sent the empty aircraft back to FRA from VIE and they bussed us to BUD from VIE.

At least five from what I recall.

-The first was in 2005, a BA CitiExpress EMB-145 from EDI-SOU. The weather was starting to get really bad at Southampton and on the first approach we were a few hundred feet above the ground but then pulled a missed approach. Whilst in the circuit for attempt #2 the airport was closed with the nearest available diversion point being BHX. When we landed at BHX there was already a coach waiting to drive us the 130 miles back to SOU. What was slightly amusing was my friend and I held up the departure. We were in the BA lounge at EDI and as all the flights were being announced we just waited for ours to be called...it never came and we were individually paged at the time the gate closed. We were escorted on by the gate agent and the door shut behind us. I'm almost certain that if we were at the gate on time we'd have got into SOU before the weather got too bad.

-I had an early morning flight from JER to LGW on BA and fog was causing huge problems at LGW so we had to head to the nearest diversion point....JER {biggrin} Plenty of other BA flights had diverted there too. My brother was due to fly out later that morning from JER and due to the diversion I got to watch my brother walking across the tarmac to catch a flight of his own. Quite a few people just disembarked when we landed because they were going to miss their meetings

-The most fun was a private adventure from Virginia to the Turks and Caicos where we had to divert twice on the same journey. For very long winded reasons that I won't go into, the PIC had managed to leave his passport in his car at the VA airfield. The weather was too bad for us to fly back and get it so we had to divert to MYR, where he happened to have a beach house. He then drove back towards VA and met someone bringing his passport south. The following day we had to divert to the Bahamas because weather prevented us from getting to the Turks & Caicos.

-The last was flying JFK-CLT-RIC for work a couple of summers ago. After pushing back from JFK we pulled off to the side of one taxiway near T8 because of ATC issues on the route down. I had a lengthy enough connection that even an extended hold at JFK wouldn't be too awful, alas it extended to a couple of hours and then en-route down to CLT you could watch the thunderstorms coming our direction. The descent into CLT was "accelerated" for a diversion into RDU instead. We pulled onto a gate and could stay in our seats or head into the terminal. My seatmate went into the terminal and I had plenty of room in F to stretch out but when it was apparent this wasn't going to be a brief stop I went into the terminal too to charge various devices. We needed fuel and the thunderstorm delayed refueling significantly so didn't get back into CLT until about 2am. Finding a hotel for the night was a bear because there were so many cancellations that I couldn't get anyone on the phone and it was after midnight so I took a taxi to a suburban area with a lot of hotels and walked around until I found somewhere with a room (getting showered with an office park sprinker in the process)....that was about 3.30am by that time I got to bed.

I've been diverted due to weather going into RNO. Twice in one day!

I had a medical diversion on my Delta flight last year en route to Providence. The man across the aisle from me in 1D had a stroke. We diverted into Syracuse. Ironically, we arrived in PVD ten minutes before the next scheduled flight from DTW arrived.


-Rowen

I've flown over 250 flights, only once did we come close, but didn't. We were flying from ORD-SLC and was watching the lightning over SLC. Cleared enough for us to land. I think the pilot said we were a few circles away from diverting to somewhere else. It was an OO CR9.

Several years ago I was flying ORD-SMF on United. I few hours into the flight the Captain announced that there was a problem with the windshield anti-ice system, and explained that if the weather were dry in Sacramento it wouldn't be an issue, but since rain was forecast for the area we were going to need it. So we diverted to DEN, where they had another A320 waiting for us at the next gate. We waited for the ground crew to transfer the bags, boarded the new plane, and were on our way. In a case of "when it rains, it pours", on that same flight we had to return to the gate before departing ORD due to an ill passenger.

The only other time I've been on a flight that diverted was back when I worked for Intel. I was flying on the Intel corporate shuttle from MHR to HIO. Long story short, both HIO and PDX were below minimums, so we flew a racetrack for a while and then eventually diverted to Redmond, Oregon. That turned into a whole day ordeal of sitting around the FBO waiting for conditions to improve, and then eventually just getting on a flight back home as the entire work day was gone anyway.

Actually, now that I think about I have been on many Intel shuttle flights to HIO that landed in PDX due to fog, and we were then bussed to Hillsboro from there. Those didn't immediately come to mind since I still ended up at my destination, but I guess those were technically diversions as well.

Both times on WN and both due to weather.

1st: Flying DCA-STL-HOU. Severe thunderstorms near STL complete with tornadoes in the area. Our flight tried to land one time but was getting tossed around like a toy and the decision was made to divert to SDF. We waited a few hours then flew back to STL but of course my onward flight pushed back just as ours pulled in so I ended up spending a night in STL.

2nd: Flying HOU-LGA. Big snow storm in NYC meant that our flight was delayed several hours in HOU to begin with. When we finally got near NYC the snow had started again and LGA had stopped accepting arrivals. We circled a bit but ended up diverting to BWI and sat for an hour or two. Any other time it would have been no big deal but we were doing a self connect to AF over at JFK so I kept checking the time and the flight status on AF hoping it would be delayed also. Fortunately we were still able to make it to JFK just in time to make that flight.

Had my first diversion in February, flying from EWR to SAN on Alaska. The fog was pretty heavy, resulting in two missed approaches. The captain decided a landing would not be possible and we landed at LAX instead. Rode a charted bus back down to SAN and got home at about 3 in the morning... thanks a lot fog!

Twice

First Time flying ORD-EWR on AA around 2005. EWR was getting stacked up (what else is new) and we were running low on fuel. Diverted to BDL to fuel up then back into EWR a couple of hours late.

Second time just a couple of years ago. Flying AA ORD-SNA, I have flown into SNA enough to realize we weren't descending anymore on final like we should, and it felt like we had leveled out. Sure enough, we flew over the field at around 5,000 feet and headed out to sea before turning towards LAX. Turns out pilots were getting an indications one of the flaps wasn't working. With a short runway at SNA, a longer runway at LAX was preferred. We landed with no issue although we did have the fire trucks lined up, which in retrospect was actually pretty cool. They didn't know how long the flight to SNA would be delayed, so I changed my rental car to LAX as was on my merry way. I looked later and the flight headed from LAX to SNA about 3 hours later.

alggag wrote:

Both times on WN and both due to weather.

1st: Flying DCA-STL-HOU. Severe thunderstorms near STL complete with tornadoes in the area. Our flight tried to land one time but was getting tossed around like a toy and the decision was made to divert to SDF. We waited a few hours then flew back to STL but of course my onward flight pushed back just as ours pulled in so I ended up spending a night in STL.

I live about 10 minutes from STL and sometimes get on flightaware during bad storms just to see what is going on with the air traffic. I have seen planes just a minute or two from landing (under a few thousand feet) divert to IND/MCI. Sometimes they are just running 5 or 10 minutes late and they would have made it if they were on time. I always feel bad for those people going from 10 minutes late to 2 hours late because of a few minutes (not that safety doesn't come first). I have also seen where one plane has to pull out last minute and diverts immediately and then a plane 10 minutes behind it lands fine (same type of plane and same airline). I guess the first plane didn't have enough reserve fuel to circle for 10 minutes and still be in distance of a backup airport? I have also seen flights take off from STL make it almost up to Chicago then turn around and come back because of weather or flights from Chicago to STL take 2+ hours instead of the normal 45 minutes because they have to fly around weather. Both those would not be fun to be on.

I luckily have never had a diversion but being a little bit of a nervous flyer, I would not be in the best state of mind if we had a missed approach... haha.

I've had just one diversion. Flying MAN-JFK on Pakistan International's 77L when weather in JFK deteriorated. We circled over Connecticut for a while and then I noticed the IFE airshow's destination had switched to IAD. Moments later the captain announced we would divert to IAD. We landed and parked along a DL 744 and some other JFK diversions. A bit over an hour later, we were refueled and continued on the short flight to JFK, arriving over 3.5 hours late and missing my connection on AA, requiring me to overnight in the terminal after booking a hotel on an OTA and then being told once I arrived there that I had no reservation and there were no rooms left anywhere around the airport.

Only four diversions I can think of:

On the return leg of my very first round trip on a plane (on a BCAL BAC1-11). Originally scheduled to fly TUN-LGW but because of French Air traffic control disputes the flight had to take a very circuitous route and the pilot announced we had to make a stop to pick up more fuel. Ironically the airport we diverted to for the extra fuel was Paris LBG.

The second was a flight from CMN- LGW which was diverted to LHR because of bad weather at LGW - I wouldn't have minded too much as I live nearer LHR than LGW except that I had left my car at LGW.

Also an LGW weather diversion - but on this occasion I had driven to LGW to pick up a flight to TFS only to find that the flight was diverted to BHX due to fog and we had to take a coach up to BHX.

The last is perhaps the most convoluted. Flying from AMS to CWL I was told that the inbound flight from CWL had been diverted to BRU due to fog at AMS and we were given train tickets to BRU to pick up the flight. If I had stopped and used my brain I would have sat tight at AMS and waited for the evening flight as by that time the fog was lifting and flights were starting to arrive normally - but that is by the by. Arriving at BRU we were told that the flight hadn't been diverted there but to RTM and anyway it had gone onto CWL without us! So after some investigating by the airline staff they arranged for us to fly BRU-LGW where we changed for a flight routing LGW-BRS-CWL. Just to add to the fun as the second flight taxied out from BRS it got a puncture and we had to deplane and hang around while it was fixed!

So instead of arriving at CWL at around 1100 it was nearly 2300. Having said all that I had a jolly good day out - you can't beat a mystery tour!

There was a fifth incident but not exactly a diversion where a long delayed flight routing LHR-GRU-GIG (a Varig 747-300 Combi) had its routing cut short and the flight terminated at GRU and the GIG passengers had to transfer to another flight to complete the journey. I was slightly concerned because the routing of the flight I transferred to was GRU-GIG-FCO and I had this horrible fear they might cut out the stop in GIG and fly straight to FCO. Needess to say, it didnt.

LAHockey wrote:

I have a question for you all here today:
Have you been on a flight that was diverted?

At least twice from memory:

LAX-SYD UA 747-400 Engine trouble about 1hr out from LAX. Dumped fuel for a while before returning to LAX. I was flying as a UM and a cute young lady stayed with me in the LAX Hilton overnight and from memory the nice folks at UA shifted me onto a QF flight the next evening. If I was a few years older I might have made a move on the cute young lady baby sitting me that night coz she was hot

SYD-SFO UA 747-400 Reg # N121UA Star Alliance Livery - About 6hrs into the flight an announcement for a doctor was made over the PA. Another hour later the Captain announced that we would be diverting to HNL for a medical emergency. No other info given. After the person was offloaded, we arrived into SFO about 3 hours late and I was pissed off as I was booked on my first attempt to log the rare 757-300. Instead of flying into DEN on the 757-300 and then into AUS on a 737, I was put on a little RJ on a direct flight into AUS. A few weeks later in an e-mail from UA they said one of the FAs had a medical emergency. I got 10k or 20k miles out of it. I got to log my first 757-300 flight 5 years later, on DL though

In September of 2014 was flying UA 47 FRA-IAH. We were about 50 miles north of IAH when the captain announced we were diverting to AUS as there was heavy traffic on the IAH approach and we needed more fuel. Weather in Houston was clear at the time, so not sure why there was a backed up landing pattern. So, after a 30 minute detour to AUS, we sat on a remote part of the ramp and refueled, with the cabin doors open for some fresh air. After about 40 minutes on the ground in AUS, we continued to IAH and arrived appx. 2 hours late. It was unique, as there are no scheduled FRA-AUS flights.

October 1986 inbound Gatwick from Athens Greece on a Britannia 737-200. Fog caused us to execute a missed approach and divert to East Midlands / Castle Donington. Thankfully for the five of us travelling together we only had to catch a taxi to the local train station thence to Peterborough thence to Huntingdon. Probably quite a few folks were more put out than we were.

July 2016 four hours into a Hawaiian Air A330 flight HNL-SYD we diverted back to HNL due to something leaking from our aircraft as allegedly reported to our flight crew by a close-flying aircraft. Overnight hotel in HNL and safely to SYD next morning on same flight number. The diversion aircraft we were on departed to LAX the next morning as we were waiting to depart for SYD.

A flight (CRJ1000) from Bali (DPS) was diverted to...DPS because "they forgot to fuel up." Yeesh.

Also, one flight (787) from DEN to NRT made an emergency landing in SEA due to an oil-filter issue.

Only the one diversion. Gatwick to Miami in April 1995 on a BAW 747-200 reg was G-BDXH the volcano special (also our iron bird on the flight back). Bad weather at MIA shut the airport, had to divert to Nassau. After a few hours on the ground took off for MIA, after landing the airport was shut again due to bad weather.

The one that really scared me was on an ATL-IAH routing on Continental circa 1989. The cabin filled with smoke and we wound up in MSY. I had to stay overnight and instead of continuing on to IAH, I took DL back to Atlanta.

Years ago. Eastern from BDL to ATL. Cruising along normally when the page bell rang repeatedly, commotion in the rear of the 727. Flight attendant came over the p.a. asking if there was a doctor aboard. Moments later we began to descend, pilot announcing there was a medical emergency and we would be landing in Charlotte to offload the stricken passenger. We landed but did not arrive at a gate. Instead we pulled up to a cargo hangar where a box scissor truck, several police cars and an ambulance were waiting. They wasted no time opening the door, paramedics entered with a backboard....they were performing CPR as they took a man back down the aisle, his now very panicked wife following, flight attendant trying to comfort her and assisting with her carry on. They got the man and his wife into the ambulance which quickly departed. We sat for a little while until an EAL, baggage handler arrived and pulled their luggage off and drove it away. Soon later we departed for ATL. Once aloft, the pilot came on and thanked everybody for their patience and explained that the airline would take care of anybody who mis-connected their flights. Nobody complained or said anything the rest of the way. Very surreal.

KEF-BGO 752: Diverted to SVG due to snow on runway in BGO. The flight was actually a KEF-BGO-SVG-KEF triangle so the routing was just reversed to KEF-SVG-BGO-KEF. However, due to crew duty time limits it ended up being rerouted to a simple KEF-SVG-KEF and BGO pax were rebooked onwards with SK.

KEF-MCO 752: Diverted to BGR for fuel.

KEF-SFB 752: Diverted to YQX for fuel.

RKV-EGS F50: Diverted to AEY due to winds in Egilsstadir, continued an hour later.

JFK-KEF 753: Diverted to GLA due to extreme weather in KEF, continued a few hours later.

ORD-LGA DL E175: Diverted to PIT due to Mike Pence's plane overrunning Runway 22 at LGA. Crew eventually timed out so we were unable to fly back that evening, ended up getting the last room at the airport Hyatt and flew out the next morning
DEN-LGA F9 A320: Diverted to ALB due to insufficient fuel to continue in hold. Sat on the ground in ALB for 0:30 to get fuel and wait for a departure slot.

4 times. Three on GOL due to weather conditions. One in BRA due to crew.

- Just last week was supposed to land at CXJ and we diverted to POA (130km/80mi away). As I was going to a city in between them I rented a car and drove myself. The airline offered busses to take passengers to CXJ airport.

- Last year while flying CGH-MGF the airport was closed and we landed in LDB (100km/60mi away). From there we were bussed to MGF airport.

- Few years ago on a CGH-FLN-XAP flight, XAP airport was closed. We flew back to FLN and then bussed to XAP (550km/340mi). On the following day I would board a evening FLN-CGH flight and FLN airport was closed due to extreme crosswind. Had to spend the night in a hotel and fly out early next morning.

- Many years ago my JTC-BPS flight got severely delayed. Crew run out of legal working hours and we had to fly JTC-GRU, changed crews, refuel and were on our way to BPS many hours after we were supposed to arrive. But better late than sorry, I guess.

Don't know if this qualifies as a diversion but...
I was on a Turkish Airlines flight at Istanbul a few years ago. We were taxiing to the runway but then a hostile (drunk) passenger started assaulting the old man sitting in front of him for reclining his seat . We returned to the gate and the police arrived and kicked the passenger off and arrested him. We took off with a 2 or 3 hour delay afterwards. Ever since this incident I've actually developed a phobia of reclining my seat.

Once for weather to ALB instead of SYR due to snow, On Sept, 11, 2001, MIA-JFK diverted to RDU. We got the only widebody gate, A-300, many, many aircraft waited for gates for hours. I was in a hotel before the second tower fell; at RDU people waited hours to unload, many spent night in hotel banquet and meeting rooms. Bus to ORF next day and family pickup.

Once three or so years ago flying LAX-DEN-KEF with LAX-DEN on an American Eagle CRJ-900 and the rest on an FI B752. The only reason I was flying via Denver in the first place was that FI cancelled the SEA-KEF portion of my original LAX-SEA-KEF itinerary less than 24 hours before departure (thus causing me to miss out on what would have been my first B734 flight aboard AS).

We were informed as we approached Denver that there was a large thunderstorm directly over the airport and so we would do a few laps and wait to be cleared to land. The thunderstorm was indeed massive, and quite impressive from the air. We did 8 large circles while holding over the next hour, before the captain informed us that we didn't have enough fuel to keep making laps, and besides DEN had now officially closed due to a tornado and hail warning. So we instead landed at a sunny COS where we waited on the ground for an hour or so and then refueled along with some other aircraft, including the LH B744 to DEN.

I spotted my FI flight taking off as soon as we landed after a 10 minute flight COS-DEN, and despite AA's insistence that I'd get my bag since the flight had taken off, they ended up losing my luggage. I then spent some time on the phone with FI agents who insisted that the next flight with availability to KEF was a few days later and wanted me to fly some crazy itinerary along the lines of DEN-BOS-MIA-JFK-KEF but after insisting that this was beyond idiotic managed to convince them to book me on the BA DEN-LHR and then FI LHR-KEF, after which I then sprinted across the airport to make the flight.

None thankfully. Perhaps the closest I came to that situation was back in 2012 on a red-eye from LAS-YYZ where my plane pushed back from the gate only to return about 2 minutes later; the cause was a faulty cockpit sensor that in essence took 2 1/2 hours to fix because no maintenance crews were on duty at the airport at the time.

Once only, the 12th of March 2010, Kigali - Nairobi (via Bujumbura) on KQ448 - a very enjoyable ride on B767 for a such short trip!

All of these sound like some crazy stories! Thanks for posting everyone!

Last year, my father flew IAH-PEK-SHA on CA. Historically, CA 996 from IAH-PEK had always arrived 30 minutes to 1 hour early, so I expected that day to be no different. Instead, heavy rain showers the previous day and "VIP traffic" caused massive delays at PEK. At 3:20 AM, the plane was preparing to make its descent when it was directed to divert to Hohhot in Inner Mongolia. The plane landed at 4:03 AM and everyone was held on the plane for 2 hours. When the traffic backlog at PEK cleared, the flight took off at 6:14 AM and arrived at PEK at 7:27 AM. This caused him to miss the connecting flight CA 1831 from PEK-SHA, which left at 7:30 AM. The majority of the pax were also making connections, and all waited to be rebooked for flights later that afternoon. As it turned out, the airspace was restricted for VIP traffic that day. All PEK-SHA flights (except for CA 1831), including some scheduled to depart at 8:30 AM, were delayed and finally cancelled at 3 that afternoon.

He had to spend the night at PEK, given 200 RMB (approx $30) for hotel and meal vouchers. Was rebooked onto another flight at 9:30 the next morning. At 4 AM, he was told to leave the hotel room since a flight crew needed it for rest (all rooms were full at that point). When he reached PEK 30 min later, the airport was already packed with people who missed flights from the previous two days. The traffic management program was still in progress, but his flight departed and arrived about 1.5 hours late. Total travel time was 46 hours.

His return journey didn't fare much better. Just as he got to SHA, I found out his inbound flight had been diverted to HGH because of an isolated 1 hour thunderstorm right over Hongqiao Airport. I mean, come on man. A 77W on a 1.5 hour flight can't even hold for 1 hour in the air? So of course, the connection was missed, and he rescheduled the journey for 1 day later. The next morning, at 4 AM, the SHA-PEK flight CA 1590 was once again cancelled because the inbound PEK-SHA was cancelled from the previous day. Fortunately, he was quickly accommodated on a recovery flight, scheduled just 15 minutes after his original flight. The rest of the journey proceeded uneventfully, and he arrived in Houston 1 day late.

The total journey involved 1 diversion, 1 missed connection, 3 cancelled flights, and 4 rebookings. My family swore to never take Air China or make a domestic connection in China ever again.

I was just thinking about this topic the other day. Over my lifetime I have taken about 300 flights and not once has my plane been diverted. The closest I came was on a flight from MIA to GRU when my flight was almost diverted to Campinas, Brasil due to fog in GRU.

dfwjim1 wrote:

I was just thinking about this topic the other day. Over my lifetime I have taken about 300 flights and not once has my plane been diverted. The closest I came was on a flight from MIA to GRU when my flight was almost diverted to Campinas, Brasil due to fog in GRU.

Ironically given your name, the one diversion I've been on was SJC-DFW, where we initially diverted towards AUS due to thunderstorms/tornado activity near DFW but crowding at AUS saw us end up in ABI, one of four or five Mad Dogs that were there at once. Up to DFW maybe 2 hours later.

IADCA wrote:

dfwjim1 wrote:

I was just thinking about this topic the other day. Over my lifetime I have taken about 300 flights and not once has my plane been diverted. The closest I came was on a flight from MIA to GRU when my flight was almost diverted to Campinas, Brasil due to fog in GRU.

Ironically given your name, the one diversion I've been on was SJC-DFW, where we initially diverted towards AUS due to thunderstorms/tornado activity near DFW but crowding at AUS saw us end up in ABI, one of four or five Mad Dogs that were there at once. Up to DFW maybe 2 hours later.

That sounds like a cool diversion!

Twice, with both destinations as Shanghai, and one each for SHA and PVG.

Flew PEK-SHA on a CA 772 after a misconnection and a lengthy rebook (due to thunderstorm in SHA). Was delayed for an hour, went into the air, did all sorts of strange patterns for 1.5 hour before diverting to HGH and cancelled for the day. A real nightmare to deal with CA HGH reps trying to find a hotel or other transportations at all.

Another time was flying MEL-PVG on MU 332. Heavy fog prevented us from landing and we went to HGH before being told that HGH "was full" and we went to NKG instead. Sat for four hours with additional catering provided (everyone was hungry as it was an early monring arrival). Went back as one of my shortest widebody flight to PVG before it literally took 2 hours for 15 people to rebook (myself included) after misconnection. A real nightmare again dealing with inefficiency. Ironically, a fellow pax onboard was only to have a meeting in Shanghai before flying to SYD that night. Oops.

Once with me on it. AKL-ROT became AKL-TRG and they were going to transport the rest of the way by road ( a couple of hours driving). As I was flying AKL-ROT-WLG, I changed by ticket for free at the airport in TRG and made a TRG-WLG flight 40min after we diverted.

Another time, I was flying ZQN-AKL, with a large thunder storm on approach into AKL that had us circling for 25min (out of 30min holding fuel). The Captain had warned us we would be diverting to WLG and then right at the last minute we were sudden;y cleared to land.

Several other departure flights I have been booked on were impacted due the inbounf aircraft diverting.
NPE-AKL diverted to TRG due Fog. ( I rebooked a flight that afternoon)
OSL-LYR diverted to OSL also due Fog (was overnighted at the Radisson Blu for an extra night)
CEB-IAO diverted to CEB due low visibility caused by heavy run and thunder and a short runway with no lights or runoff. I was delayed for 3 days until I could get another flight.

Several years ago, flying BKK-CAI-CDG on Egypt Air. I had headphones on watching a movie on my iPad. I noticed some commotion around and a couple of announcements but didn't pay to much attention. Then I felt the airplane start to descend differently than I had ever felt before. I have been on many flights, but never felt a plane descend at that rate. I took off my headphones, but I guess I missed the English announcement and they were announcing in Arabic which I don't understand. On the inflight map noticed we were turning around and our destination was Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The flight attendants were running around franticly so I didn't disturb anyone to ask what was happening. I was a little panicked since I was using the same carryon bag that I had used to go to Israel a year earlier. I have a bad habit of just stuffing boarding passes and receipts into different pockets of my bas and never went through the bag to be sure of clearing out evidence of Israel. I still didn't know why we were landing there, I assumed a mechanical problem and maybe we would have to deplane and go through immigration. I franticly went through my bag to and did find some airport receipt from Tel Aviv airport and tried to hide it in the seat pocket. Fortunately they didn't stamp my passport in Israel.

Shortly before we landed they made an announcement and it was clear there was a medical emergency. Upon landing and taxiing to the gate quickly, some EMTs came on the plane to attend to someone and after 20 minutes or so took them off the plane, fortunately still alive. Luckily we did not have to get off the plane. After about 2 or 3 hours we took off again for CAI.

Arriving in Cai 3 hours late, I only had a few minutes for my connection. Flying biz class there was someone there at the gate to escort me to the flight to CDG. Transferring from arrivals to departures there is only 1 security machine. We ran from the gate to the security line. After waiting in the line for about 2 minutes, my escort took me around the line to the front. He said something to the screeners in Arabic, and they just let me go around the metal detector with my carryon bag not going through x-ray and took me directly to the departure gate. I was shocked, but no complaint from me. I can't remember clearly, I think there was some sort of secondary security at the gate before getting on the plane and I was the last one to board.

gweilo88 wrote:

Several years ago, flying BKK-CAI-CDG on Egypt Air. I had headphones on watching a movie on my iPad. I noticed some commotion around and a couple of announcements but didn't pay to much attention. Then I felt the airplane start to descend differently than I had ever felt before. I have been on many flights, but never felt a plane descend at that rate. I took off my headphones, but I guess I missed the English announcement and they were announcing in Arabic which I don't understand. On the inflight map noticed we were turning around and our destination was Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The flight attendants were running around franticly so I didn't disturb anyone to ask what was happening. I was a little panicked since I was using the same carryon bag that I had used to go to Israel a year earlier. I have a bad habit of just stuffing boarding passes and receipts into different pockets of my bas and never went through the bag to be sure of clearing out evidence of Israel. I still didn't know why we were landing there, I assumed a mechanical problem and maybe we would have to deplane and go through immigration. I franticly went through my bag to and did find some airport receipt from Tel Aviv airport and tried to hide it in the seat pocket. Fortunately they didn't stamp my passport in Israel.

Shortly before we landed they made an announcement and it was clear there was a medical emergency. Upon landing and taxiing to the gate quickly, some EMTs came on the plane to attend to someone and after 20 minutes or so took them off the plane, fortunately still alive. Luckily we did not have to get off the plane. After about 2 or 3 hours we took off again for CAI.

Arriving in Cai 3 hours late, I only had a few minutes for my connection. Flying biz class there was someone there at the gate to escort me to the flight to CDG. Transferring from arrivals to departures there is only 1 security machine. We ran from the gate to the security line. After waiting in the line for about 2 minutes, my escort took me around the line to the front. He said something to the screeners in Arabic, and they just let me go around the metal detector with my carryon bag not going through x-ray and took me directly to the departure gate. I was shocked, but no complaint from me. I can't remember clearly, I think there was some sort of secondary security at the gate before getting on the plane and I was the last one to board.

Oh man. that first story sounds crazy. Well I'm glad everything was fine (except the medical emergency).