Boeing 777 passenger liner assists in Mayday rescue

lenseman

lenseman

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 Jun 2006
Messages
7,077
Location
South East Coast - United Kingdom
www.dswmarineengineering.com
Last edited:
Staggering that they had that much extra fuel onboard !
It would have been no coffee nor biscuits for me if had taken that much extra fuel in my B777 flying days with BA.
Great outcome though.
 
dylan said:
Staggering that they had that much extra fuel onboard !
It would have been no coffee nor biscuits for me if had taken that much extra fuel in my B777 flying days with BA.
Click to expand...

A comment on one of the pages linked above suggests that they would have carried fuel for possible / predicted headwinds that then didn't materialise. No idea if that's plausible or not.

What a flight to be a passenger on though - being asked to look out of the windows for a dismasted yacht!

Pete
 
Air New Zealand and Air Canada have been thanked for diverting flights to help rescue a solo yachtsman whose disabled boat was drifting hundreds of miles off Sydney's coast.

The yachtsman was saved early on Wednesday (NZ time) by New South Wales Water Police, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) says.

Merchant vessel ANL Benalla had arrived alongside the yacht late on Tuesday and provided shelter from strong winds until the water police arrived from Sydney.

The solo yachtsman left Pittwater, on Sydney's northern beaches, two weeks ago heading for Eden on the NSW south coast.

He activated an emergency beacon on Tuesday morning, reporting that his boat had been drifting away from land since last week.

He reported that his yacht had been dismasted, was running low on fuel and drifting further out to sea about 270 nautical miles east of Sydney.

Because of the remote location, AMSA asked two commercial airlines whose flight paths passed over the man's GPS position to help confirm his whereabouts.

An Air Canada Boeing 777, en route to Sydney from Vancouver, and an Air New Zealand A320, heading to Sydney from Auckland, subsequently diverted from their courses to check on the yacht.

"AMSA thanks the captains and crews of the Air Canada and Air New Zealand aircraft for their assistance in the search and rescue operation, and their passengers for their patience," the authority said in a statement on Wednesday.

http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.aspx?id=155815&fm=newsmain,nrhl
 
dylan said:
Staggering that they had that much extra fuel onboard !
It would have been no coffee nor biscuits for me if had taken that much extra fuel in my B777 flying days with BA.
Great outcome though.
Click to expand...

I don't understand this comment, what difference does it make to an airline if you have extra fuel, surly that is some comfort that should their be a problem and the destination airport is closed you can safely go somewhere else? It won't evaporate and unused fuel can be used on the return journey.
 
Canadian songstress was on Air Canada flight that helped rescue sailor

Last updated Tuesday, Oct. 16 2012, 6:55 PM EDT

Thanks to extra fuel left on their plane and a pair of binoculars from a passenger, the crew of an Air Canada jetliner helped in the rescue of a sailor adrift in the South Pacific. (Tim Wimborne/Reuters)

It was almost the end of a long, uneventful Pacific crossing for the 270 passengers aboard Air Canada flight AC033 to Sydney when an electrifying announcement came on the public address system.

The captain said the plane had to divert its course to help locate a vessel in distress in the Tasman Sea, between Australia and New Zealand.

Flight AC033, which had left Vancouver about 12 hours before, was contacted by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority after an emergency beacon signal was detected around 8:15 a.m. Monday.

After making sure there was enough fuel, the crew of the Boeing 777 descended from an altitude of 7,500 metres to 1,800 metres, said Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick.

Canadian Juno-nominated singer-songwriter Jill Barber, currently on a two-week tour of Australia, was on the flight

Reached by phone by The Globe, she had this to say about the experience: “At first, my heart started to race. It was so unusual," she said. Anything out of the ordinary on a long flight like that, over the ocean, can make your heart race a little bit. So everybody was a little concerned, but also, rolling with it. Nobody grumbled about the delay. The gentleman next to me had a pair of binoculars, and he got them out of his bag and gave them to one of the crew members.

“It was a little scary, because how close we were to the water. It felt like we were flying just above the water. We had a pretty good view, and they were tipping the plane side to side to maximise the view. “

Everyone on the Air Canada jetliner cheered after they were told the boat was found and a rescue plane was on its way, Mr. Lawrence said.

The yacht was about 500 kilometres east of Sydney, the Australian maritime authority said.

An Air New Zealand Airbus 320 en route to Sydney from Auckland was also later diverted to the area and eventually an Australian rescue plane arrived and dropped a life raft and a satellite phone.

The solo yachtsman had left the Sydney area two weeks ago but for the last week had been drifting away after losing his mast and running low on fuel.

A merchant vessel was to reach the yacht to shield it from the strong winds until the police vessel could pick up the sailor.

The Air Canada flight had to travel an extra 400 kilometres and landed in Sydney about 90 minutes behind schedule, but aiding in the rescue wasn’t the main cause of the delay. Most of the extra time was spent on an earlier diversion for weather, Mr. Fitzpatrick said.

“We’re really pleased we could help,” he said.

Local officials said they seldom enlist the help of jetliners because they rarely deal with incidents so remote that they would only have to rely on commercial airlines, a spokeswoman told Australian media.

“The Boeing 777 was the closest asset available to us,” Jo Mehan told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/n...-south-pacific/article4615310/?service=mobile
 
Seven Spades said:
I don't understand this comment, what difference does it make to an airline if you have extra fuel, surly that is some comfort that should their be a problem and the destination airport is closed you can safely go somewhere else? It won't evaporate and unused fuel can be used on the return journey.
Click to expand...

You don't just fill it up before take off. Fuel is very expensive to carry. It is extremely heavy and adding more weight means you need to carry more fuel.. These days fuel loads are very carefully calculated to carry just enough ... (within the safety criterial of having fuel to allow for head winds and possible stacking)
 
Tomahawk said:
You don't just fill it up before take off. Fuel is very expensive to carry. It is extremely heavy and adding more weight means you need to carry more fuel.. These days fuel loads are very carefully calculated to carry just enough ... (within the safety criterial of having fuel to allow for head winds and possible stacking)
Click to expand...

It was not a massive diversion, given the distance of the route overall. It was near the end of the flight, so the didn't have much farther to go. And - as I understand it - although they do calculate fuel loads carefully, they also have to carry a safety margin to account for things like headwinds, stacking on arrival and diversion to an alternate airport in case their primary is closed.

As an aside, I flew into Sydney a few hours later from Singapore, and will be on the return Air Canada flight (Sydney to Vancouver) in a few days. Well after the current crew has gone home, I'm sure, but I'll ask anyway.
 
Seven Spades said:
I don't understand this comment, what difference does it make to an airline if you have extra fuel, surly that is some comfort that should their be a problem and the destination airport is closed you can safely go somewhere else? It won't evaporate and unused fuel can be used on the return journey.
Click to expand...
Lugging fuel about is expensive so airlines carefully work out how much fuel they load, there is always a margin for "comfort" as you say. It's all about keeping the cost of tickets cheap.
 
Extra fuel

As has been said, you burn fuel to carry fuel.
From what I've read they had at least an extra 70 minutes fuel on board. I don't buy the lack of headwinds bit.
We don't have the facts just the reports, very unusual to be able to cross the Pacific and then hang around at low level for so long.
Anyway they did and landed safely, so a great result.
 
Many moons ago - when one was allowed in the cockpit - I was chatting to the flight crew (in a then brand new) 777.

As glider pilot I asked about glide distance from 35,000 ft if both engines failed (135 NM if you're interested) and also as a sailor, would they be aware of a distress call.

They immediately pointed to one of the gazillion instruments in the cockpit showing a radio receiver tuned to 121.5 MHz (OK it's been phased out now) but it was reassuring!

Also got sit in on the night time landing into Boston.
 
.
When we were planning our transat (which didn't happen in the end) one of the things we bought was an old but still serviceable 121.5 MHz distress beacon specifically dEsigned to be picked up by aircraft. I wojld think it is still a handy thing to have if you can get one cheaply. (They are obsolete now and you will probably have to make up a new battery pack).

- W
 
We often used to hear distress beacons on 121.5 but all we could do was report them. No way of us locating their position, only report when loudest sometimes.
No longer a problem for sailors with EPIRBS giving position to satellites these days.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top