Have you been on a flight that diverted?

[antycbr]

VA ATR service from SYD-PQQ became:

SYD-(2 missed approaches at PQQ)-(1 missed approach at BNE)-BNE-(rerouted in J on mainline VA)-SYD-PQQ.

Left home in SYD at around 7am and arrived in PQQ around 6pm. It’s 4 hours by road…

 

[Rangalad]

Have you boarded a flight and then landed at an airport that wasn't the intended destination?

I had a diversion about a decade ago on a domestic flight in Brazil. Took off from CGH bound for CNF, but after circling over Belo Horizonte for some time and being unable to land due to the weather, we ended up returning to Sao Paulo. Ultimately we didn't have enough fuel to make it all the way back to Sao Paulo though, so we diverted to Viracopos.

(From there, unfortunately the airline handled the situation really poorly. After a long wait and no communication, wee ended up getting put on buses - first back to CGH, and then to Belo Horizonte.)

Interestingly, I was crediting this flight to QFF and it credited to my Qantas account as a CGH-VCP flight, which short-changed me a bit. A missing points claim fixed that.

I've also had a Qantas SYD-AKL flight return to SYD after take-off due to a bird strike. That was handled much better - Qantas gave us some meal vouchers, found a new plane and we departed again a couple of hours later.

If you have a diversion tale, this thread is the place to tell it!

Abu Dhabi to Amman.

Due to a sand storm near Amman diverted to Aqaba, Jordan.

After about an hour on the ground, I asked if I could go onto the tarmac for some fresh air.

Two armed Jordanian military personnel escorted me from my seat, off the aircraft and allowed me to walk on the tarmac (only about 100 metres).

The aircraft finally received clearance to depart, arrived Amman about four hours late.

RJ then rebooked me to Munich and onto Vienna (final destination) will LH.

 

[drron]

Three diversions all on AA. first JFK-LHR became JFK-MIA-LHR as they had run out of spare crews in JFK as it was severely affected by weather. Got to LHR quicker than if we waited for the next JFK flight.
Second was CDG-JFK on a QFF award. Operations dramatically reduced due to a general strike in France' So put us on CDG-MIA-LGW.. Not only got us there but reissued ticket that QFF cancelled our award flights as didn't turn up for our non existent direct flight. On AA stock.
Third NRT-DFW-LGW became NRT-ORD-LGW as DFW closed due to blizzard and all flights out cancelled.

 

[RB001]

CDG-MIA-LGW

Perhaps LGA?
Seems a slightly circuitous way of getting to Gatwick. (despite your intention to get to New York!)

 

[sydney slug]

Son getting married in April this year, but needed to go to London for 3 days for the civil ceremony for just the parents before the full celebration/ceremony in Sri Lanka. 94 year old dad due to rendezvous with us in Colombo. Breakfast about to be served on the way back from London when pilot says "prepare the cabin for landing." Some older chap had a heart attack, we were going for Mumbai but did a uey and set down in Muscat. Poor bloke perished on approach. Sitting on the tarmac in a country Sri Lankan Airways don't fly to with a body that can't be moved till checked by the local police and no mobile coverage. Air Crew wear saris with a lot more showing that healthy in Oman, not only that they are all up against time rostered on limits. Staring down a relief crew being flown in much later today or everyone offloaded and crew back refreshed tomorrow.

Cops arrive. Ground staff (no agent, not sure who he worked for) manually go through all the paperwork for our continued journey. Widow and body leave via the back door (poor lady, she must have been in a terrible state) and crew get an extension so we take off arriving about 4.5 hours after schedule. Thankfully somehow got wifi and got my daughters to call their grand dad's hotel to tell him what was going on. Arrive eventually and he tells us he had a lovely day lounging by the pool.

2009 30 feet from landing at JFK in nasty weather we head skywards. hoping for a go around but the plane only goes 90 degrees left not 180. That can't be good. 20 minutes later pilot tells us we are heading for Chicago. Arrive there - in the line for a room I confidently ask for three rooms for our family of 5. You can have this one that is left or try another hotel. 20 or so in the line behind me. The floor of the bedroom was quite comfy and like a lot of American airport hotel rooms the wife and kids got to share 2 queen sized beds. But that's what dads do.

 

[slaussie]

Goodness! So many diversions over the last 30 years, I could spend 10 hrs writing about them. But one event is memorable for all the wrong reasons - airlines can't control diversions when they are caused by bad weather but the effort they put into the recovery, is what stays with you forever.

This was back in 1980s when JU (JAT - Yugoslav Airlines) still existed. They had a very good worldwide network connecting through BEG - Belgrade. I picked up a good fare from LHR to SYD (transit in BEG, then via DXB and SIN as operational stops to SYD). This was just before Xmas and BEG was in a snowstorm, apparently known to the airline prior to leaving LHR, but they still took off.

Plane could not land at BEG (although take-offs were still happening from there, as I found out later). So, we diverted to ZAG - Zagreb, which is about 40-50 min flying time short of Belgrade. It was snowing in Zagreb and all I had on was a T-Shirt (heading for the seasonal heat of Australia, apparently).

Zagreb airport was literally bursting at the seams as all flights heading for Belgrade were landing there. One could not even move to exit the building, let alone get some assistance at a single service counter which would be serving thousands of diverted pax. In my naive state of mind, I though planes which could depart Belgrade would come to Zagreb to collect connecting pax and then continue towards their intended destination. Instead, they left Belgrade half empty and left thousands behind in Zagreb.

Eventually we were taken by buses to the Zagreb train station and continued overnight by slow passenger train (regular service, stopping in every village along the way). Arrived Belgrade in the morning of next day, still in the blizzard conditions, negotiated our way to the airport. Airline did not even provide free transport to the airport for us. With no local money in hand, I appealed to the bus driver to take me for free, which he did begrudgingly.

Once at the Belgrade airport, JU staff had not even opened service desks; they just sat behind glass partitions, sipping away at the freshly brewed coffee and bantering amongst themselves whilst hundreds of pax were queuing up and scratching at the glass for attention. This lasted some 45 minutes at which point they decided they would talk to the customers. They were surprised to learn we had arrived in Belgrade by train and could not understand why Zagreb didn't accommodate us at local hotels.

They said I would need to wait for three days in Belgrade for the next JU service to SYD, subject to availability. This is when I lost my mind and started to tell them how the things will go from here. I took on the role of a spokesperson for all SYD bound pax and secured us an evening flight from BEG (via SPU - Split) to FCO - Rome. From there we connected onto QF flight via ATH - Athens and SIN - Singapore, to SYD.

With confirmed tickets in our hands (these were still the times of paper tickets), we had to kill about 10 or 12 hrs before the evening departure to Rome. Due to bad weather, airport had no power, so we couldn't even have a hot coffee, forget a cooked meal. We drank warm beer instead and slept on the top of our bags to make up for the lost sleep from the night prior.

By the time we got to Rome, we were truly stuffed. Getting onto the QF plane was a welcome relief. Having left Europe full 24 hrs later than the original plan, we got to Australia just in time to celebrate Xmas. Understandably, this was my last trip with JU.

 

[Himeno]

I've had a few rerountings, but only one diversion thus far.
On an LONE4. QF32 LHR-SIN in 2009.

Arrived in the area of SIN after the lunchtime departure from LHR the day before to large storms. SIN was taking no landings due to the storm so we headed to KUL to wait out the storms and to top up some fuel.

After landing in KUL, we parked near the MH maintenance hangers and watched out the window as bus loads of MH ground staff came out to take photos of the A380.
Only the captain was allowed off the aircraft to complete paperwork.
Had other pax around me getting worried about connections in SIN. Oneworld had a downloadable tool with the timetables for oneworld member flights and I had just updated it a short time before the flight. I had my laptop out checking flight schedules for nearby pax getting worried about onward flights.
Once the storms had cleared enough, we headed back to SIN.

Of course, my plans were to have a day trip in SIN, then get an evening flight out of SIN.
This was when JL operated a KIX-SIN-KUL flight. I was on the SIN-KUL sector.
Ended up at KUL twice in 12 hours.

 

[Wing Nut]

Back in the late 90's was flying from Mt Isa to Townsville on an F28 when the pilot made an announcement that I didn't quite hear as I was down the back near the engines. The hostile came around about 5 mins later and asked if I was going to Townsville or Cairns. I said Townsville, she said "ok, we're going to Cairns.".
"Oh, do you mind stopping in Townsville?" I enquired. She said "Didn't you hear the Captains announcement?"
Said "Against this noise and a few beers deep, not really."
"Oh, ok. We're going going to Cairns. We have hydrologic issues. (Wonderful I thought) The plane can land but the pilots aren't sure they can retract the landing gear so we're diverting to Cairns. We'll put you up for the night and give you dinner vouchers. Oh, and here's another beer."
Awesome! More beer and a free night in Cairns!

Meanwhile in Townsville, Mrs Nut was meeting me inside the terminal. There weren't that many evening flights and was milling around with other people waiting for the same. Arrival time came and went while the board showed the plane was "in flight". 10 or so minutes later same thing but there was no one around from the airline (think it was Alliance) to ask what's happening. Another 10 or so minutes passed by and the board flicked up "delayed" then not a few minutes later "cancelled" then dropped off the board! WTF! How do you go from in-flight, delayed to cancelled then nothing? Mrs Nut thought the worst but figured no one was there so might have been ok and besides, would hear something on the radio on the way home.

Unbeknown, we arrived in Cairns. The crew gave us a room and hotel meal voucher, said don't move the bus will be hear soon then shot through. There was not a phone to be seen so I went behind an unmanned counter, found an STD phone and called my wife. Told her the story and that I'll be home in tomorrow.

 

[elanshin]

Oh if it's including rerouting then we had LAX - SYD cancelled on us 36h before our flight. I was tracking it and seeing a big QF2 LHR - SIN delayed 14h tipped me off that my flight was being cancelled so I started looking into alternatives. Couldve taken SEA - NRT - HND - SYD or SEA - YVR - SYD and partner decided to see Vancouver for half a day.

 

[Scarlett]

My diversion was a simple BNE-SYD via BNE… Due to an evening delay out of BNE we were fighting to make the curfew in SYD. Not helped by being daylight savings time. Got down to maybe 50-100ft at SYD and then the QF B767-200 spooled up the engines, made a bunch of noise climbing away and we went back to BNE.

QF put everyone up in a city hotel, gave us a toiletries pack, bus ride in for the evening and then taxi voucher to get back to the airport. I rebooked for a leisurely late morning flight the following day. The poor young fella sitting beside me thought he was going to get fired for not being able to turn up to work on time the next morning… he was trying to get rebooked on the first flight out the next day (maybe 0600). I wonder how he got on?

 

[AIRwin]

The poor young fella sitting beside me thought he was going to get fired for not being able to turn up to work on time the next morning… he was trying to get rebooked on the first flight out the next day (maybe 0600). I wonder how he got on?

He now works remotely?

 

[Mattg]

I was on VA780 today. About 5 minutes after take-off from Cairns, I got a Flighty alert that the flight was diverting back to CNS. That was the first sign that anything was unusual.

Soon after, we started turning away from BNE and something was clearly up, so I tried opening Flightradar24 to see where the plane actually was. Our aircraft wasn't being tracked on there at all. Sure enough, a few minutes later, the captain announced that there was a "radio issue" and that we couldn't continue so would be returning to Cairns. Based on his explanation, it sounded like the transponder was broken.

We landed uneventfully back in Cairns, and initially they thought they might be able to quickly fix the issue on the ground. Not so, so we were asked to disembark and the flight was later cancelled. Everyone rebooked onto other flights. It took about 90 minutes for the ground staff to get authority to issue meal vouchers, and eventually I got 4x $8 vouchers which can't be used on alcoholic drinks (fair enough). Had to collect my checked luggage and check it in again for my new flight, leaving four hours later than my original one.

VA780 happened to be my 999th flight. I guess it still counts as a takeoff & landing, so my new flight out of CNS will be number 1,000.

 

[offshore171]

A couple of years back. Alaska airlines from Hawaii to Anchorage Alaska, overnight redeye.

They were bribing people at the gate to volunteer to be offloaded and fly the next day. Big money was offered, over $1000USD from memory.

They had to offload many people and take on more fuel in case they needed to divert.

This was due to extreme headwinds on the route and blizzard conditions in Anchorage.

I'm sitting there, looking at the map, wondering where the heck they would be diverting to?


In the end, we had enough volunteers and the pilots got it down ok in the blizzard at Anchorage

 

[serfty]

VA780 happened to be my 999th flight. I guess it still counts as a takeoff & landing, so my new flight out of CNS will be number 1,000.

Congratulations on the the one thousand logged flights.

Back on topic - in many years of travel and tens of hundreds of flights I have had just the one diversion (late last year); it was always going to happen with the flight and it's circumstances.

Post in thread 'Ask The Pilot'

Dec 16, 2025

Refeulling by Tanker.

Currently I am on QF22 (DFW-MEL). It boarded ~6pm local for a scheduled 6:20pm departure.

We we confronted by a bus gate. Ok, these things happen. However, it seems the hard stand has no fuel plumbing and all fuel needs to be trucked.

Given the route ... there's a lot needed and it is taking some time

It is now 8:20pm and they don't expect this to completed until nearly 9pm in about 40 minutes

Assigning such a gate to a 17 hour flight make little sense.

From a commercial pilot's experience, how does such stuff happen?

• serfty

• 

I nearly had a DFW to ANC flight diverted to SEA as all autopilots had been disabled (ironic given I'd departed SEA that morning) but the aircrew managed to manually fly all the way.

 

[Quickstatus]

Ive been on a couple of flights where the flight actually diverted to my intended destination!

LAX-MEL

But diverted to SYD for fuel but which was my final destination

As it was refuelling, the CSM got us a remote aerobridge and a bus
We breezed through SYD arrival procedure because the checked luggage remained on board.

The checked luggage was sent to us by courier later that afternoon.

Service + plus refund of the MEL-SYD sector + Original routing SC!!

 

[SYD]

Ive been on a couple of flights where the flight actually diverted to my intended destination!

LAX-MEL

But diverted to SYD for fuel but which was my final destination

As it was refuelling, the CSM got us a remote aerobridge and a bus
We breezed through SYD arrival procedure because the checked luggage remained on board.

The checked luggage was sent to us by courier later that afternoon.

Service + plus refund of the MEL-SYD sector + Original routing SC!!

I suspect in the past, quite a few BNE bound PAX have had that perk on transpac flights when SYD was fog bound.

 

[Ansett Nostalgic]

CX AMS-HKG last year got diverted to TFU due to medical emergency.

 

[Tooner]

A few years ago flying MEL-SYD on VA mid-afternoon. Sydney had storms so we circled around for a bit and tried 2 approaches, but the turbulence was extreme (people we crying and praying), and both times had to abort. In the end we ended up at NTL (very much pre-refurbishment). There were a couple of other planes there and we were eventually let off the plane and moved into the terminal. Despite discussion from some about flying back to SYD it was clear we weren't likely to fly there. Sure enough, a stream of buses arrived for the various QF, JQ and VA flights that had turned up.

On the way back, the storm intervened again, as there was an accident in front of the bus, which the bus could not avoid clipping. Another stop, on the side of the motorway, and waiting for another bus to come from Newcastle. It eventually turned up and dropped us at a very quiet and gloomy SYD T2 at around 2 am. After eventually sharing a taxi I managed to get home around 2:30am after leaving Melbourne about 12 hours before!

 

[Stanley Lambchop]

I was on the QF LHR-SIN flight last year that diverted to Baku for a medical emergency and ended up with us having to overnight there. Ended up having a great dinner out and a few beers with another pax that I knew in downtown Baku.

 

[chitown_boy]

This thread really justifies my subscribing to Flighty

Two diversions from 332 flights (flights are all post-2010 since that’s when I started collecting boarding passes that came in handy with Flighty).

SQ352 SIN-CPH in 2016, PAX medical emergency over India and diversion to Dehli.

NZ1 JFK-AKL in 2023 diverted to Nadi due to strong head winds and to refuel, since Air NZ 787’s are more Y dense / carry more passengers than QF4, they not uncommonly run into this issue…lesson here is choose QF4 over NZ1!