A Qantas A380 was forced to divert to Ontario International Airport yesterday due to fog at LAX. Poor ONT does not see a lot of mainline jets anymore, let alone A380s so it was quite an event.
Unfortuantely, the airport’s media team don’t know how to spell Qantas (there is no u in Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services) and apparently does not know the difference between a takeoff and landing, but still a neat event.
ETA: Well, they fixed they fixed the spelling and took out the bit about landing!
I honestly do not know why this is such a big deal on social media and in the blogosphere. Ontario actually has a longer runway than lax and is used often as a diversion point when LAX closes or has a backlog of flights during incremental weather. Also its one of the rare ports where cbp will allow an intl’ flight to land and refuel to continue to LAX without screening all passengers and cargo. As my partner grew up across from the ONT airfield, seeing Intl’ jumbo jets at ONT is not as uncommon as you may think.
Concurring with Rocky, this isn’t news. Indeed, this has long been the “first” LAX diversion option for flights coming from Oceana. Circling isn’t an option at that point, SAN has a few obstacles near their single runway and SFO is too far (for planes coming up from the south).
There are enough long runways in Southern California that something can be worked out, but ONT is by far the best choice. Hence it is the first backup.