A couple of years ago my family took a trip to Delhi, India and I wrote this review but thought I had lost it forever. After a recent discovery I decided to post the tale. To-date this is the only time we have ever encountered an emergency landing and faced a diversion after more than a million butt-in-seat miles flown. Here is how British Airways completely botched a solvable situation.
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Great Start
On a recent trip to Delhi, my wife and 18 month old daughter found ourselves on a flight path from Chicago to London (overnight) and London to Delhi. We were able to use upgrades for an American Airlines flight form my Executive Platinum Status and though that flight was delayed and we switched to British Airways, our confirmed upgrades were honored. Great move American Airlines! After a lovely flight the night before from Chicago we found ourselves with plenty of time in Heathrow to make our connection and find our gate. We even fit in a little time for coffee.
The gate area was unexpectedly barren and the flight was surprisingly open with just 113 passengers booked on the flight. Hilariously, I tried to pay with either cash or points to upgrade to even just premium economy for the eight and a half hour daytime flight and they wanted thousands per person, despite the flight being wide open. I am so glad we didn’t spend a dime because we ended up with two rows to ourselves and we could have had a far more serious situation.
Electrical
We pushed back ahead of schedule and our flight headed out over northern Europe. Specialty meals (in this case mostly pre-reserved vegetarian entrees) came out about an hour into service. I was well into an “airplane film” (a movie you wouldn’t pay to see in a theater but given a limited choice on an airplane, you are enthusiastic to watch). I was about halfway into Tomorrowland (don’t judge me I had exhausted the rest of my options) when an announcement came over the PA that the IFE needed to be reset, we would need to start our movies over when it came back on in about 15 minutes. Not a chance Clooney, I’d rather try my luck at Veep, but I wouldn’t get the opportunity.
“Can the Chief Flight Attendant please report to the cockpit?” the captain said ominously over the speakers.
My wife, who even eight years on and hundreds if not more than a thousand flights later is still a bit nervous from time to time, was clearly understanding exactly what was taking place and she was not excited about it.
Something was wrong.
“Folks, as some of you in our business and first class cabin have realized, we have some fumes that have entered the cabin and I have taken the decision to divert the aircraft to Frankfurt. We should be on the ground in 20 minutes to determine the cause of the issue and then hopefully right back on our way to Delhi. Please follow the instructions of your crew members as they prepare the plane for landing.”
Fumes are not good. I thought this might have been an oxygen mask situation and was wondering why they didn’t drop them if people in the front of the aircraft were breathing fumes which we now realized was serious enough to shut off the IFE system to avoid a potential fire or explosion. We never received an answer and we didn’t press for it, we just followed instructions.
Calm In A Storm
I have watched enough aircraft crash investigation shows to walk my wife through the potential procedures and what to expect. I think her take on whether or not this was helpful would be a good addition to this piece.
At the time it was early into a long haul flight so we would have been heavy on fuel and would either try to bleed some out of the engines to make us lighter or might have to take the Brace, Brace position upon landing as the extra weight could cause the gear to collapse. Though the masks never dropped we reviewed how to do put them on, to pull them to start air and that we would first put our own on before helping our daughter. We were in nearly the back row so an emergency exit was not hard to find, but still discussed that in the event we needed to evacuate, I would exit holding our daughter first out of a safe slide and my wife would follow. This wasn’t a failed case of chivalry but rather the priority to get our daughter off safely was paramount and my wife would prefer that I jumped down the slide (if necessary) holding our daughter rather than her.
Lights and Excellent Organization from Frankfurt Airport
Though it was our first such diversion, the ominous lights of firetrucks at the edge of the runway are haunting. I thought back to all of my hours spent watching emergency landings (because I am a true airplane geek) and usually I know what comes next and it’s not an uneventful landing.
Thankfully this one was, and with the lights of the fire truck reflecting off of our white triple seven, we were followed to a brief holding area before parking at a stand and then being swarmed by staff.
Firetrucks, buses for passengers, and stairways were all ready for our arrival – they had 20 minutes for us to land and were prepared for our arrival. The Frankfurt staff had designated a place to take the passengers and when we arrived that the holding gate off of a transfer bus, it was already branded for British Airways and there was a British Airways trainee there (poor soul) to answer the questions we had with answers he didn’t know.
Purgatory
The holding gate or cell area is a kind of geopolitical purgatory. Our flight was en route from London to Delhi and while passengers had paperwork sorted for their origin and destination in advance, some may not have been eligible to enter Germany. In a true emergency situation where medical attention would have been required or a potential overnight stay perhaps a temporary emergency visa would have been granted for those that did not otherwise qualify. However, that is a lot of paperwork and hoops to jump through if the maintenance issue is only temporary or a rescue plane can quickly be dispatched to help us carry on our journey.
It was in this Purgatory hole that we sat with hundreds of other passengers from our flight and others in similar situations (diverted to Frankfurt for one reason or another) with basic provisions. This is a secured building with no outside access and a vending machine only (hope you happen to have Euros in your pocket). While first and business class passengers were promptly re-routed on competing airlines (there were no oneworld carriers from Frankfurt with direct flights to Delhi) and sent on their way, the rest of us had to take what was given.
Next up for re-routing and assignment was oneworld elite members, of which we were all elite (including our two-year old infant). I was an Emerald (top-tier), my wife was a Sapphire (middle tier comparable to Star Gold) and our daughter was oneworld Ruby (25,000 mile level) despite her being young enough to not have to buy a ticket yet.
We waited patiently for new information, it seemed that our aircraft may be cleared to take us onward and we were trying to be calm and avoid shouting at the counter as some had taken to. It couldn’t have been 10AM when we initially landed in Frankfurt, but without any new information, and the best flight options quickly evaporating on other carriers, by 2PM we were getting nervous.
Facts were sparse and seemed to be closer to lies than truth. Announcements were made about ice an hour with no real remedy nor timeline ahead. Here are some mis-truths we were told at the time:
- A replacement aircraft has been sent.
- The current aircraft is fine and being repaired.
- Everyone will fly back to London to pick up an aircraft from there, though the aircraft has to first be flown into Frankfurt to pick up the passengers.
- Guests will be re-booked in an orderly manner starting with elite status.
In the end, we should have ignored our polite sensibilities and been more aggressive. It was only after a small mob that had amassed at the counter that actions were taken and coach passengers began to find a way out.
Twitter and Phone Support
I find that Twitter responses, because they bring to light a real problem from a real person publicly, tend to be fast and helpful. If I have an issue, this is where I run first regardless of the issue or travel provider (hotel, airline, rental cars).I recently started the conversation for my more recent Air Transat issue as well. British Airways Twitter responses were unhelpful. Their information was hours behind and their responses were significantly delayed. When calling in, their phone reps were even less helpful. I sat on hold, routing through the phone tree, and walking agent after agent through our situation at a cost of $.20/minute thanks to T-Mobile. Each had a different reason why they couldn’t help, and none were particularly helpful.
It was only weeks after our travel was completed that we were properly awarded our EU 261 compensation. In the moment, neither Twitter nor phone support were anything other than a hinderance and frustration. I don’t expect every transaction, flight, meal, etc. to go right, in fact I expect some to go wrong – there’s no love lost for a mistake or an issue like this, but it is how that failure is dealt with that shows the strength of a brand to me. British Airways handling of this event was bad on the phone, the internet, and in-person. They didn’t do what they said they would do, they didn’t even inform us we could leave the area with our (then) 18-month old child at any point who would choose since we have passports that allow us to enter Germany freely.
As patience subsided and the last flights direct to Delhi were leaving for the day, the crowd turned to mob and despite our good manners, those that shouted the loudest were getting flights out – I wish we had abandoned decorum earlier in the day but was trying to avoid embodying European stereotypes of Americans. Once I began jockeying for position at the front and demanding action, tickets were printed for coach on Air India and we were off to Delhi.
Collectively, we were pretty happy that as much as we have flown over the last decade this is the one and only emergency landing we have ever had and it went as smoothly as it could be. But I also think that British Airways could have found a solution faster and better than the cold shoulder until the passengers gathered their pitchforks 10 hours into the imprisonment.
Have you encountered an emergency landing away from the airline’s hub? Was your (hopefully safe) experience better, worse or is this about par for the course?
I totally agree with you and am glad that it all ended safely. I can’t believe how long it took BA to rebook everyone on a new flight. Just shows how cheap they are. I’m sure they could have rebooked more people earlier on the LH flight and others on the Air India flight much earlier. It’s not like they landed in the middle of nowhere up north where there are no flights. They landed in FRA, one of the busiest airports in Europe with a few direct flights a day to Delhi. BA just didn’t want to pay their Star Alliance competitors. And all they provided for 10 hours is a bag of chips, a Mars bar, a can of pop and a water bottle?
That’s correct, a candy bar, water and nothing else. Even when we left purgatory after being there for hours they didn’t issue any vouchers for us once we gained access to the rest of the airport.
Horrible situation…FRA is definitely a station for BA that should have better contingency plans in place. One a side note, oxygen masks will only be used in cases of decompression, not for fire or fumes. The masks for passengers essentially take oxygen and add it to ambient air, so you would still be breathing the fumes/smoke. Also, you probably don’t want to add pure oxygen to the environment in the event there was a fire.
Good to know regarding oxygen masks. It seems strange that passengers would continue to breathe fumes with no solution but we didn’t see any of the forward cabin coming back to coach TJ avoid it.
Did they ever give you a straight answer on the specifics of the “fumes” emergency that forced a landing?
Never ever.
The more important question is: How was Air India???
I’ve only experienced two emergency diversions/landings during my 35 years as a road warrior. The first was on a PBA (no longer exists) flight from Boston to Provincetown on an ancient DC3. Took off just fine, flew out over the harbor, and twenty minutes later we were landing…back in Boston, surrounded by firetrucks. No inflight announcements, just a stern suggestion upon landing to leave the plane quickly as the port engine had caught on fire.
The second incident was several years ago aboard a Delta CRJ from Little Rock to Memphis. We had flown through a thunderstorm cell and encountered a strong downdraft that caused us to noticeably plunge in altitude. For some bizarre reason we diverted to Greenville, Mississippi. There, DL decided to bus us to MEM. It was suggested that we go “try our luck” at the nearby casino while we waited for our bus.
Air India was… not good. We were bulkhead (great) but passenger’ children were just let loose on the plane with reckless abandon just after takeoff. Let me be clear that we came into the flight jaded. We had spent 10 hours on the ground and instead of relaxing in our suite and eating Michelin Star food in Delhi we were just taking off from Frankfurt in economy on a red eye after being held captive all day prior. But the food was bad, service passable but nothing special, and everyone else just released their children which is just not something we would ever do.
No, but fun fact, the British Airways 777-200 that caught fire on the runway in Las Vegas happened a week later. I was worried that it was the same aircraft but the tail numbers were different.
Thankfully I’ve never dealt with anything nearly that bad. I was once on a (now defunct) Air Sahara flight from HYD to DEL when the plane started shaking badly about 45 minutes out of DEL. The captain ordered the FAs back to their stations immediately, so I figured something was wrong, but no announcement was ever made. Finally he said we had a mechanical problem and would be making an emergency landing at DEL, and it certainly was disconcerting to be surrounded by the fire brigade. I was sweating bullets a little because I had a separate ticket to connect to the old AA DEL-ORD flight. As much of a shambles as domestic-international connections were in those days, anything less than a 4-hour connection would make you nervous, and we were under that by the time we made it to the terminal. No airline personnel were anywhere to be found, naturally. Thankfully, with a well-timed shuttle bus to the international terminal and shorter than usual lines at immigration that day, I didn’t have to find out about Air Sahara’s IRROPS procedures…
A couple of others on here have stories about bad IRROPs on (now) defunct airlines. Probably not a coincidence.
I have been through several in-flight emergencies as well as a crash after take-off in which I thought my son and I would die. That event had lasting psychological consequences. It’s never fun being the purgatory/de-brief room so I thoroughly sympathize with what happened to you. My last emergency was the second leg of a LHR-ORD-DEN-BIL route and it was smoke in the cabin on a United b737-800 about a year and half ago. We landed in Des Moines about 6-7 minutes after the smoke appearance which is a testament to the crew. That event didn’t faze me (I have been through far worse) but the snafus afterward were amazing. Suffice it to say i stayed overnight and got a flight to Chicago early am then to Denver and so forth. I don’t think airlines are prepared at all for the aftermath of emergencies.
Your experiences make mine seem like a walk in the park. We agree that airlines don’t do enough to prepare for the ground experience in these situations, but I couldn’t imagine the fear you’d have traveling with your child in that situation.
You know what – in the circumstances just be grateful that you were safe. In the big scheme of things it wasn’t that big a deal.
Agreed, I mentioned in the last paragraph, “Collectively, we were pretty happy that as much as we have flown over the last decade this is the one and only emergency landing we have ever had and it went as smoothly as it could be.”
Have you encountered an emergency landing away from the airline’s hub?
Yes. This was 9-10 years ago our group of nine (two families) were flying from STT to PHL. Shortly after take off, I noticed we were circling the Spanish Virgin Islands instead of heading north. The captain announces the landing gear didn’t retract, we needed to land in SJU but had to burn fuel prior to landing. We circled for at least two hours. We were greeted by an alarming army of fire trucks and emergency personal vehicles on a far off runway.
I cannot remember why but we were held on the plane for a very long time before being released into one of the terminals. The airport was shutting down for the night, the crew had timed out and a new plane/crew was being sent in to take us to PHL.
It was bitter cold in the airport and we were all dressed for summer weather. We were trapped in the terminal with no access to food or water. Our son was 2yo at the time and I rigged up a tent of sorts with airline “blankets” and he fell asleep, the one bright spot.
20 minutes prior to boarding our STT flight, my friends (twins) received a call that their mother was dying and not expected to make it more than 24 hours. So if the emergency landing wasn’t bad enough, they and their husbands were distraught over the news and beyond stressed over the thought not making it home in time.
My friends wanted to leave and find another way home (on their own dime, they didn’t care about the cost) but the airport employees in charge of minding the masses were of no help at all. By the time the UsAir reps arrived, it was too late for my friends to go out on another flight. I remember many on the flight having the same feeling, that UsAir intentionally dragged their feet until all other options for rebooking had departed.
We finally flew out the next morning about 10 hours later. A four hour flight home took almost 22 hours. Their mother passed in the middle of the night when we were at the SJU airport.
That sounds terrible. I would think it would have been easier for them to arrange since all of the airports (STT, SJU, and PHL) were US territories with no passport concerns. Sorry to hear about their mother, no compensation could have made that issue right.
And no compensation was given.
Each couple (four in all) wrote to UsAir’s customer service, well-worded, detailed accounts of the events. All of us received the same, genic response along the lines of “sorry you were inconvenienced”
@Kyle. I think children can be surprisingly resilient; my son got over it very quickly and of course had serious bragging rights at school.
Fair enough – some earned battle scars for show and tell.
Looks like a poorly handled situation but rarely do these unplanned diversions go smoothly, even at a slick hub like FRA which is a BA outstation. Alitalia cancelled an onward flight to LHR coming back from Malta one stormy night many moons ago and it was absolute chaos. This was at their home base!
By the way, the landing gear wouldn’t collapse even if you were carrying the trip fuel to India. With smoke/fumes you’d probably just land overweight rather than mess around dumping fuel but with a nice long runway such as FRA it’s really no big deal.
The bigger issue with landing overweight is that the brakes can get hot and there’s paperwork and an inspection to do afterwards but the gear on something like a 777 is incredibly strong.
They chose a nice long runway but I am sure they were bleeding as much fuel as they could from the moment they decided to divert. But with the really light passenger load, and the medium distance, BA should have had plenty of aircraft that could suit the mission (about 120 passengers and only about a 6-7 hour flight). Surely they would have some 767s at Gatwick just hanging around, it’s not like they were replacing an A380.