UPDATE: The Aviation Herald reports the American Airlines 777-300ER U-turn was related to cabin pressurization:
An American Airlines Boeing 777-300, registration N725AN performing flight AA-73 from Los Angeles,CA (USA) to Sydney,NS (Australia), initially climbed to FL280 and was enroute over the Pacific Ocean about 420nm southwest of Los Angeles, when the crew initiated a descent to 8000 feet due to the loss of cabin pressure.
Other media outlets are reporting it was a cargo door issue, which of course could be related. Live And Let’s Fly has reached out to American Airlines for clarification.
Passengers headed for Sydney, Australia last night on American Airlines ended up back in Los Angeles after a false alarm led to a 777-300ER U-turn, emergency landing at LAX, and a flight to nowhere.
American Airlines 777-300ER U-Turn Over Pacific AFter False Alarm Onboad
On Wednesday, October 23, 2024, American Airlines flight 73 took off from Los Angeles (LAX) five minutes behind schedule at 10:35 pm and took off at 11:02 pm PT. The flight was operated by a Boeing 777-300ER (registration N725AN).
Just an hour into the flight, however, it made a U-turn over the Pacific and headed back for Los Angeles, touching down at LAX at 1:50 am…a three-hour flight to nowhere. The flight never rose about 28,000 feet.
It has since emerged that the entire diversion was predicated on a false alarm.
Pilots received an alarm in the flight deck indicating a cargo bay door was open. Erring on the side of caution, the choice was made to immediately divert back to Los Angeles. Upon landing, it was discovered the cargo door was closed and the problem was simply a light malfunction.
Passengers were placed in hotels overnight and provided meal vouchers. The delayed flight to Sydney is scheduled to take off at 1:10 pm PT using the same aircraft, meaning AA73 will operate twice today. Hopefully this time the passengers will make it all the way to the land down under.
“Upon landing, it was discovered the cargo door was closed and the problem was simply a light malfunction.” How is this possible? Aren’t these cargo doors supposed to be double checked by airline personnel before the plane leaves the gate so there would be confirmation the doors were indeed closed? I understand the precaution but if there was confirmation from the ground and apparently zero performance issues with the plane flying for an hour it would probably be safe to assume it was just a false alarm.
If only it were so simple. Yes, all of these things would have been checked prior to departure. But when you get a cargo bay open alarm – even though there may be no evidence of degraded progress or pressure loss – you have to land and have it checked. Cargo doors have been known to blow out and take aircraft down and the middle of the Pacific Ocean is no place to be gambling on such a thing….even if the odds are on your side that it’s a false alarm.
I’d imagine that the flight crew was pretty sure that it was a false indication. But they were also smart enough to not take chances.
UA 811 in 1989
This happens with the cabin doors as well with older airplanes and have to agree with what you’re saying.
Recently was flying SIN-ZRH with SQ in a 777. We had to return back to the gate after starting to pull out of the gate as the pilots saw a light indicating that a door wasn’t closed. The door was closed and I heard it close as I was in 1C. After checking it again at the gate, we were on our way.
This is a bare faced lie, my husband was on that flight and he was told to sleep on the floor and received 2 x $12 coupons, but the stores were closed until 4.30am. They were treated terribly.
Told to get off the plane and look after themselves.
They were late taking off because they told them they didn’t need to re-ticket and then changed their minds to re-ticket, made them late again. Now I have to drive half way to Sydney to pick him up at 2.30am because the trains aren’t running to Newcastle at this time of night.
You’re saying AA offered no hotel vouchers?!
He was told that there was a sporting event in town and no rooms available.
I was on this flight too. Decided to take the later flight to avoid being on that equipment. No hotel vouchers were offered. Everyone was told to sleep in the terminal. Aa spokesperson has lied to KTLA about what happened. We got home around 3am. Terrible communication from AA. They offered us each 10k in miles. Ha.
Thanks for you data point.