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A388 QF94 LAX - MEL returns to LAX. Fuel pump issue
4.5 hours in to the flight VH-OQK returns to LAX. Warnings of a (or multiple) fuel pump failures. 9 hours in the air and back where they started. Safely. (www.google.com) Mais...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
ANA is now flying 380's to Honolulu and are part of the Star Alliance. I'm sure (for a fee) they'd loan out a mechanic to work on the plane. Honolulu also has a good Customs Department in case anyone wasn't going to get back on that plane and had to clear customs.
Google shows a few diversions there, and a couple of demonstrator flights, so the runway can handle them. Getting the folks off may be a problem.
Good Point
A divert to HNL would have made a whole lot more sense from many points of view, safety being at the top of the list. Losing the pumps on the good side would be embarrassing whereas putting it down on the Islands might inconvenience the Engineers but give the passengers a 16 hour vacation in the sun rather than being stuck in LA. Those having urgent need to reach MEL could be accommodated on other flights.
This was obviously a decision made by the Administrators with Customer Service left out.
This was obviously a decision made by the Administrators with Customer Service left out.
The customer to whom service counts is the shareholder. I imagine they saved $0.33 per head on LAX over HNL. Walk-on cattle don't count.
An extra 9-10 hours of jet fuel for an A380 is not an insignificant expense.
The savings from not wasting all that fuel would've gone far to help defray the costs of pasenger and crew accommodations in HNL, plus the cost of getting a couple of engineers and necessary parts on the next available flight out of LAX.
Plus the plane would be about 5 hours closer to its' intended destination.
The savings from not wasting all that fuel would've gone far to help defray the costs of pasenger and crew accommodations in HNL, plus the cost of getting a couple of engineers and necessary parts on the next available flight out of LAX.
Plus the plane would be about 5 hours closer to its' intended destination.
The divert to HNL might have made more sense, but andyc852 made the point that he didn't think HNL could handle the 380, as per no scheduled service. True emergency yes but probably not good otherwise
LOL...so true. There is a lot of Pacific Ocean that could handle a 388 if the pumps on the other side failed.
As navigation students we were taught when non-duplicate positions were obtained from two fixes we were to place ourselves at the nearest point to danger. If you have two crappy pumps on the port side, what are the odds of the same problem on the starboard feeds. I would favor HNL with a cherry picker to disembark.
As navigation students we were taught when non-duplicate positions were obtained from two fixes we were to place ourselves at the nearest point to danger. If you have two crappy pumps on the port side, what are the odds of the same problem on the starboard feeds. I would favor HNL with a cherry picker to disembark.
As you said earlier, this was obviously an administrative decision and not customer service.
Agree that if this had been a full blown emergency that HNL should have bee the choice