Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

Glad I wasn't on that flight.....:ohmy:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...mac-hours.html

Re: Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

That's my local airport. Would've popped down with a bag of sprouts if I'd known.

Re: Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

I'm a bit puzzled why they didn't just hook up a GPU to power the airplane systems while on the ground? That would have given them a/c. Maybe they charged too much for one?

Re: Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

Why didn't they land at Logan airport in Boston. It's not too far away?

Re: Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

Maybe if the weather was a bit shit there too then their capacity might be down. Logan's a very busy airport. Bradley's big enough for a big plane (runway-wise) but also has much less traffic overall.

Re: Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

pure evil....

Re: Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

A GPU only provides electrical power. The A340 a/c runs off bleed air from an engine or the APU. I suspect the front end had departed and gone to Operations whilst all this was going on, leaving no one qualified to run the APU.

Re: Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

No - I wouldn't have just shown them to them - I'd have thrown them a couple!

Re: Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

Maybe? The article mentioned they had problems with the generators going offline. If they had a GPU, they might have been able to run one engine which would have given them a/c? I'll guess either they had no compatible GPU or it was too expensive.

Assuming that each engine has one generator, that would mean all 4 generators failing at once. Pretty unlikely. Probably more likely the generator control bus failed. Maybe the CB kept popping? It happens.

Probably because of crew time limitations. They wanted to be somewhere they could get out quick if the weather came up in EWR.

Re: Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

From the reports I have read, the entire crew was on the plane as well.

I think the biggest issue with keeping everyone on the plane was the need to have customs there before you could deplane, at Bradley they apparently get off work at 5pm, and although officers were called in, it was until a little after Midnight that customs began to process the flight.

http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/p...hours-/97667/1

Re: Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

To my knowledge Bradley has no immigration staff (or, to be more accurate, I don't believe Bradley is served by any incoming flights that require immigration staff).

Re: Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

You don’t need a GPU to start the engines. The starter motors for the engines are air driven, powered by bleed air from the APU or via the bleed air system. The APU can be started from the aircraft batteries. The APU also has a generator.

Each engine driven generator has independent control (therefore it's own CB protection) and supplies its own associated AC BUS. Each engine can individually provide bleed air which is required to run the a/c packs, as can the APU.


I was referring to the absence of the flight deck crew. If they were on board they weren’t doing a very good job of looking after the environmental systems. Then again maybe they were told to shut down all engines by Ground?

Anyway it looks like Virgin is up for a fine. I wouldn’t like to be in the Captains shoes, something went wrong.

http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/p...-delay/97818/1

Re: Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

I'd agree which makes the story of the generator failure very unlikely. I suspect there could be at least one or maybe two pilot job openings going at Virgin Atlantic very soon.

Re: Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

Why would you plan an ALT airport for landing without customs or immigration acceptance for an international flight?

surely as someone said, Logan or Philly, BWI, Dulles were more acceptable alternatives?

Re: Virgin Flight Stuck at US Airport for Hours
 

VA are fast becoming the Ryanair of transatlantic traffic.

I say this with authority after the volcanic ash nightmare endured.

One of their crew told me recently that they don't care about their US routes now, they are more interested in opening new routes to the Middle East and Africa....