Virgin Plane unexpected landing in Alice

[karen blancfield]

i wonder why the Mel-Darwin flight has just landed in Alice at 11pm tonight. Very unusual to hear so something must be wrong.

 

[karen blancfield]

And it’s gone again, 40 minutes later.

 

[juddles]

VA1467 - it appears to have made the decision about 2 hours into the flight:

 

[juddles]

Am assuming it must have been a medical issue if the aircraft has continued so quickly.

 

[juddles]

 

[serfty]

This is what E/F returns:

Results from https://www.ExpertFlyer.com

Flight Status Search:
Departing on 08/04/19
Flying VA flight 1467

Flight   Status           Depart Location  Depart Date                   Reliability  Arrive Location  Arrive Date
                          MEL              Scheduled: 08/04/19 8:25 PM                DRW              Scheduled: 09/04/19 12:30 AM
VA 1467  Diverted toASP   Term: 3          Estimated: 08/04/19 8:25 PM   93% / 15m    Term:            Estimated: 09/04/19 1:32 AM
                          Gate: 9          Actual: 08/04/19 8:25 PM                   Gate:            Actual: 09/04/19 1:32 AM


Comments:
" DTE CHNG FLT  ORIG 8APR
MEL                     825P D    9  
ASP       D GATE 1059P 1120P D GATE  
DRW       D GATE  125A
4MEL/OUT2025 OFF2039  *0602
1MEL/DIVERT TO ASP GAS N GOETA DRW 0125 *0832*HDQWLH
2ASP/ON2255 IN2259 GATEUPDATEARRIVAL IFIDS  *0834
4ASP/OUT2329 OFF2333 DL93/0009 TAKEOFF IFIDS  *0913
2DRW/ON0125 IN0132  *1130"

 

[docjames]

"Gas N Go" in that E/F output.

What was the weather like in DRW? Storms? Flight carrying insufficient holding fuel / winds greater than expected?

I know we had a super fast flight time PER-MEL yesterday and tracked quite a way south. Wonder if weather/wind was an issue?

Paging @AviatorInsight who may provide insights into the specifics of Ops into DRW.

 

[AviatorInsight]

Thanks for the page docjames. I have done this flight on a number of occasions and never have had to drop into ASP. The weather at DRW must have changed enroute on the TAF to force them into a technical stop along the way. The company will probably hate me once I get my command in that I'd be carrying plenty of fuel for an alternate in DRW and PER. I don't like enroute diversions for no reason.

Tonight's TAF indicates thunderstorms and a varying wind. Interestingly, (knowing the PIC) tonight they decided to take flight plan fuel with only an hour's holding into DRW. I'd have carried an extra 2tonne to get to BRM...but that's just me.

As far as ops into DRW go, there's a couple of characteristics specific to the airport and the military control ops but you learn to deal with that, it's nothing too hard.

 

[karen blancfield]

Thanks for the discussion. We don’t have late night flights so that’s why it caught my interest. Weather here was beautiful for a quick stop! No time for sightseeing though......

 

[jb747]

Whilst an in flight change to the forecast can cause a ‘gas-n-go’, there are other things that can too. For instance, it may be possible to despatch under an MEL with a centre fuel tank unavailable. That could reduce the maximum fuel uplift sufficiently to force a stop on a scheduled service. Failure of a fuel pump(s) can have similar effects. Sometimes the fault may be partially evident on the ground (i.e. a single fuel pump failed, but MELable), but a second failure in flight will make the tank contents unavailable. There are lots of permutations.

 

[Melburnian1]

Drat: there's a deviation I missed. Apologies.