The United Airlines passengers traveling from London to San Francisco on Saturday were given a free 11 hour stop in the Canadian Arctic. The United Airlines flight was going to fly from London to San Francisco. The Boeing 787-9 was used on the flight and has the registration code N 13954. The flight was supposed to leave at 13:05PM and arrive at 4:30PM, with a time of 11 hours and 5 minutes. The flight operated as planned for the first five hours, flying over the southern tip of Iceland, and then over the Canadianarctic. There was a mechanical issue that required a diversion. The airport was diverted to Iqaluit. It took a sharp turn to the southeast to get to this location. The runway at this airport is 8,605 feet long and only gets service from narrow body jets. It is not uncommon to see diversions from the other side when things go wrong. The passengers were on the ground at the airport. At this point you had a plane with mechanical issues in a remote area with no replacement airplanes or crews nearby. By all accounts, United's operations team did a great job. The United Boeing 787-9 was dispatched from Denver to Iqaluit. When you consider that United needed to find a new plane, plus an entire new crew, it's pretty impressive that the plane left four hours after the other one.United transatlantic flight diverts to Iqaluit, Canada
United sends rescue plane & crew from Denver
It took over four hours for that flight to get to Iqaluit.
All passengers and bags had to be transferred from the old aircraft to the new one, which was a bit more manual than it would be at a major hub.
There was a rescue flight from Iqaluit to San Francisco that took off in the early hours. It is currently on its way to San Francisco, which is 11 hours behind schedule.
A Boeing plane had to make an emergency landing in Canada because of a mechanical problem. The priority is always to get on the ground. You have to deal with the logistical challenges presented by this.
It seems like United did a good job of handling this situation. United sent a plane and crew from Denver to pick up passengers in Iqaluit. The passengers are on their way to San Francisco.
I wrote yesterday about using Aeroplan points to visit Iqaluit. I could have taken a flight from London to San Francisco.
What do you think about the United Airlines flight to Iqaluit?
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