VA556 Friday 29 August

[arbo]

I had a strange delay to yesterday's flight from PER to SYD. We boarded as usual for a 10:00 departure. The cabin crew had already announced a 3hr 40 flight to Sydney when the captain came on and said there had been a change to the flight plan and they had to load some more fuel. I thought nothing of it as there was a large storm bearing down on Perth yesterday morning and I thought we were just going around.

Watching the flight tracker on the IFE we ended up heading to Derby, turning right at Halls Creek and coming back to Sydney over Alice Springs.

We eventually landed back in Sydney at 19:00. It would have to had been one of the longest flights I have had in Australia and not actually leave the country.

A friend on the flight was talking to one of the flight crew at the end and they told him that the long way to Sydney was taken as it was one of its last flights and they could not fly over the waters of the Great Australian Bight.

That seems strange to me as I thought we could have tracked just north of Adelaide and had the same result.

The flight tracker is on the link below.

Virgin Australia (VA) #556

Any idea of why we would have taken such a long route to Sydney?

 

[robd]

Wow. Hope you were in J.

 

[mannej]

Wow. Hope you were in J.

They were in XFB...

 

[robd]

They were in XFB...

Oh bummer!

 

[arbo]

Wow. Hope you were in J.

There was a J but not me. I was in 6F behind the bulk head but there was no tray for lunch so they moved me to 6A but the IFE was broken.

The he crew apologised as the plane was being retired in a few weeks and they couldn't do much about it.

They did tell my mate later that it might have been its last flight, hence the long way home.

 

[mannej]

They did tell my mate later that it might have been its last flight, hence the long way home.

That reason doesn't make any sense what so ever.

 

[eastwest101]

Was there strange weather and/or fog forecast for ADL and MEL so were unsuitable as diversion/alternates? Maybe liferafts unservicable thus precluding overwater flight on the Bight?

 

[DC3]

......... Maybe liferafts unservicable thus precluding overwater flight on the Bight?

Definitely no liferafts needed there.

 

[eastwest101]

Definitely no liferafts needed there.

View attachment 34626

True - but thats the diversion that happened, would you do the original plan without liferafts? More likely to be unsuitable weather ruling airports or routes out.

 

[mannej]

Do we have a comparison of the other flights from PER-SYD/MEL that left at the same time on that day?

 

[markis10]

Do we have a comparison of the other flights from PER-SYD/MEL that left at the same time on that day?

Someone noted this flight Friday and I did check, it was the only flight to do such a weird PER-SYD. QF642 is a good example being a departure at a similar time

Qantas (QF) #642

 

[Boris spatsky]

I think the most likely reason would be an MEL item (that is, unserviceability) of a system, possibly a weather radar (requiring avoidance of known areas of thunderstorms) or anti-ice system (cannot enter icing conditions and therefore must avoid areas of known icing) or HF radio potentially (requiring VHF comms - although the route taken doesn't look like this is the case).

 

[serfty]

Could be weather radar related; here's the sattelite image from around 30 minutes before scheduled departure (note the flight left 50 minutes late):



Here's the Mean Sea-Level Pressure Analysis map for around 3 hours into the flight:

 

[arbo]

Apparently according to a friend who was on the flight with me, not only did we need to avoid the waters of the Bight, but we could not run over the Nullabor but had to stay within a certain distance of suitable airports due to other operational issues relating to equipment serviceability which is why we went via Broome and Alice Springs.

Still doesn't make sense to me.

 

[MrHyde]

Maybe the pilots were on a spying mission.