An infinite flight story: My first diversion

[sqdwg8vczr]

Hello, hello humans, wanna hear a story! I gochu.

I booked a flight with JetBlue, cuz why not? Today we would be testing the performance of the A220 by taking him up to Vancouver, from Boston. What I thought, the flight would be smooth. Boy, was I wrong…

The Boogie Woogie Bluegle Boy taking me to Vancouver, November 3 0 6 2 Juliet, one of the new A220s added to JetBlue’s fleet.

I forgor what seat I’m in

Pushback!

Taxi!

Lifting off from runway 9, and a flaps 3 departure for our 90% load.

Just skipping to cruise already, cuz of the 10 photo limit

After an uneventful (and very turbulent) flight, we were approaching Seattle, but here’s where things got weird. The aircraft started descending little by little. Then, boom, we were practically diving at -3000 feet a minute. Everyone around me was wondering what the heck was going on.

We descended through a lot of mountains, before on approach to land at an airport in the middle of nowhere.

Touchdown! And a rather smooth landing and a stop incredibly quick.

After a rather normal taxi, we were instructed to disembark the aircraft and leave all of our things inside. I later found out we had diverted due to a fuel emergency, and we would continue to Vancouver in some hours. And we had landed at Pangborn memorial airport, a small GA airport located somewhere in Washington state.

For me, as the pilot, this put my skills to the test. I have done such a diversion before, but not like THIS, diverting into the middle of nowhere. 5 hours and 30 minutes into the flight, after continuously monitoring fuel for the past couple minutes, I was like: “screw it, we ain’t making it to Vancouver today” And I must say, I feel kinda proud of myself.

When have YOU had to do this?

Moral of the story: never trust simbrief with the a220. EVER.

[813WhiskeyNovember]

Omg no way, my first diversion was on a JetBlue A220 too lollll

[Humanguy]

My first diversion was a dual engine failure due to fuel starvation which resulted in an emergency landing in St. Louis.

[Stargazer_Avation]

Y first diversion was due to complete engine fail due to fuel starvation From JFK-SFO. Diverted to OKC

[Cobalt]

My first was with Etihad Airways (787-10). Flight was from AUH to ORD but had to divert to Gander (YQX) (which was very foggy) due to a fuel emergency.

[813WhiskeyNovember]

Mine was ORD-JFK, went around twice, had less than 1% fuel left and had to land over the jfk traffic to LGA. (Sorry @Anthony_Gulluscio and @Imprezive )

[Anthony_Gulluscio]

@sqdwg8vczr

Moral of the story: never trust simbrief with the a220. EVER.

I never trust simbrief as it is. When I plan, first I put in the amount of fuel that flight flight time is, if it’s 2 hours and 30 minutes I’ll add exactly that. Then, I add a minimum of an extra half hour in the case of go arounds, holding patterns, weather, or delay vectoring. Finally, I add the amount of time it would take to get to my diversion airport, usually I just add an extra hour. So in total, that’s 4 hours of fuel. It sounds like a lot but it’s pretty realistic- better safe than sorry! Whenever I fly into an area with a lot of bad weather such as Florida, or an area with busy traffic like New York I’ll add 45 minutes instead of 30 for that holding time.

[NonStopsAviation]

@sqdwg8vczr

When have YOU had to do this?

Thankfully, never

Except when I flew into a Bahamian island a few months ago, I accidentally landed at a small airstrip rather than the intl airport

Does that count as a diversion?

[sqdwg8vczr]

naaaahhh buddy