I was flying to Mexico with BA and honestly for the first time ever I have had an issue with BA.
So we were finished flying over the Atlantic we were starting to trace the east coast of the US. Then the smell of an electrical fire filled the cabin. This was when the captain decided the flight would have to be diverted to MSP. After a few minutes smoke started to appear on the ceiling but nothing too heavy just wisps. (I realised this was quite serious). Within 30 minutes we landed in MSP, to be confronted by the most grumpy US border staff your could stereotypically imagine. We ended up waiting 4 hours for visa waivers then spent 2 hours moving back and forth trying to get a hotel (which were all filled up by other passengers) the next day we were told our flight was going to take of at mid day. Already 24 hours delayed we were all very angry and wanting a bit more than just a shake it off representative from AA. Turns out the engineers didn’t know what the issue in the plane was and they hadn’t fixed the issue or even provided a secondary plane for us to use. So we had to wait 7 more hours for BA to cancel a Chicago flight and send it to us from there.
I was shocked at the lack of proactive thinking on BA’s part normally they are one of my favourite airlines.
Was this recently?
I was just wondering that.
January the 1st - 2nd 2016 :p
What kind of plane?
Most likely a B744. That’s BA’s go to plane on long haul routes.
Do you mean BA243? BA243 is LHR-MEX whereas BA423 is LHR-AMS.
Yup. Sounds like USA
yeh damnit hahaha i don’t remember I fly too much:P
Boeing 747-400 very old so I’m not surprised their maintenance isn’t so effective anymore.
they have started to us B777 would have been far betted would have totally voided the issue.
Few pointers:
- the grumpy us costums has nothing to do with BA
- next time fly first / business class and your hotel room will be arranged first
- safety first. What would have happened if they didn’t divert? We would never know…
- if I am not wrong BA oldest 777 is around 17 years old so just a few years difference with their 747’s.
what shocks me is the amount of people who agree with you. You have absolutely no idea about what class of travel I was flying on.
I didn’t claim that BA were in a conspiracy with Customs XD thats just you.
I’m a frequent business traveller with BA mostly on the European network the nature of the incident was serious and as far as I know BA have a hub in New York. It was beyond my comprehension that no one was flown in on the night? There was no accountability. This isn’t a nature issue BA didn’t do their job on maintenance hence why we had to divert in the first place.
and comparing BA’s Oldest 777 to the youngest 747 classy ;) BA have 747’s all of which when averaged in terms of age are 19.8 years old. So based on the youngest being 17 the oldest must be closer to 23 years old. 2 years shy of BA policy retirement.
P.S. I’m not bashing BA (I actually know a few executives from the company). I’m just stating my experience that this time was not falling into the BA ethos.
First/ business class cost a lot of money considering it’s only a few hours of flight
BA’s 747’s have been having many problems recently even though they are very well maintained
Indeed I have no idea about your class of travel but 80% of the pax flies economy and seeing your profile pic, a youngster, made me guess you would be part of that.
For sure BA works hard behind the scenes like any airline to minimize delays etc but they can simply not afford to delay or cancel a flight out of JFK just to get your flight back on track.
As a professional this little text shows that I can’t take your story serious.
Of course what happened sucks and could be scary but spreading stories like this which are not based on any facts damages the airline industry.
“Spreading stories which aren’t based on fact” what? So your saying I’m lying?
Planes with fires onboard are not planes that are maintained well generally just look at the myriad of issues BA has had with their entire fleet of long haul aircraft lately. If Lufthansa Technik was responsible for BA maintainance I wouldn’t be directing this angry towards BA. Talking about facts bring facts to the conversation don’t assume you know me.
Yeh totally! The Captain was highly commendable. Even on the ground he was helping the AA engineers a certain what the issue with the plane was.