SQ 317 Diverted to Baku

[SQ22]

Scary experience, but I hope all passengers and crew will come back safely with no more mid-air drama.

Why do I see SQ8850 SYD-SIN (23 Dec 2012) on FlightAware? Another rescue mission?

[yflyer]

Social media at its best, social media at its worst...it was great to have news and pictures so soon after the incident occurred, but it does seem that one has to read everything online very carefully to filter the hyperbole, trolling, attention-grabbing, and hidden agendas, from the facts of the matter, many of which may not be know for days, or weeks...

I for one am happy that everyone is safe, and that a lot of raw unfiltered info about the incident was available quickly, especially the informative and timely post on the SQ Facebook page.

[reddevil0728]

SQ Flight 317: Singapore Airlines sends plane to pick up stranded passengers

Singapore Airlines has sent a plane to pick up its stranded passengers in Baku, after a flight from London to Singapore had to make an emergency landing in the Azerbaijan capital city when it experienced a drop in aircraft cabin pressure.

An Airbus A380 left Changi Airport at 6pm on Monday to pick up the 467 passengers, who had been stranded at the airport for more than 15 hours. They are due to return to Singapore on Tuesday afternoon.

About 20 minutes after Singapore-bound SQ Flight 317 left London at about 11.15am on Sunday, a loud noise was heard from one of the doors, travellers told The Straits Times.

They felt a cold draft, which could mean air was leaking in. The flight continued for several hours until a fall in cabin pressure caused oxygen masks to be automatically deployed.

Close to 10 hours after take-off, the aircraft landed safely in Azerbaijan.

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking...ed-passengers-

[SQ22]

All passengers have been transferred to a hotel after 16 hours in the airport's transit lounge. Can't believe some blokes discredited the airline for failing to honour its promise of putting the affected passengers up in a hotel hours into the drama, and adding insult to injury by posting photo after photo of the poor souls camping on the airport floor! Surely the authorities need time to process close to 500 emergency visas???

[FN-GM]

love the love for sq even when they f00k up

Example of them messing up??

[Russ]

Singapore Airlines has sent a plane to pick up its stranded passengers in Baku, after a flight from London to Singapore had to make an emergency landing in the Azerbaijan capital city when it experienced a drop in aircraft cabin pressure.

An Airbus A380 left Changi Airport at 6pm on Monday to pick up the 467 passengers, who had been stranded at the airport for more than 15 hours. They are due to return to Singapore on Tuesday afternoon.

About 20 minutes after Singapore-bound SQ Flight 317 left London at about 11.15am on Sunday, a loud noise was heard from one of the doors, travellers told The Straits Times.

They felt a cold draft, which could mean air was leaking in. The flight continued for several hours until a fall in cabin pressure caused oxygen masks to be automatically deployed.

Close to 10 hours after take-off, the aircraft landed safely in Azerbaijan.

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking...ed-passengers-

The pressure inside is significantly higher, so air should not leak in but out. The cold draught is just that air from the aircraft has higher velocity as it nears the leaking door seal. Plus the compressors working overtime to bring in air from the outside probably lacking the heating capacity. Am I making sense?

[Russ]

Airlines are like large oil/chemical companies.

Big Oil/chemical has to keep up production and refining.
Any downtime is very costly.
Any big incident can result in even bigger disruptions and costs (Texas City, Macondo, Buncefield).
Hence a tendency to keep it going as much as possible.
The equipment is not always new.
If production is stopped every time there is a problem, you go bust very quickly.
A real need to exercise good judgement as to when to keep going and when to stop

Airlines have to keep to schedules as much as they can.
Any delays and AOG is very costly.
Any big incident can result in even bigger disruptions and costs (Major crashes).
Hence a tendency to keep it going as much as possible.
The equipment is not always new.
If flights are delayed every time there is a problem, you go bust very quickly.
A real need to exercise good judgement as to when to keep going and when to stop.

Sometimes it is a very difficult call to make... but after SQ6 and SQ 317, is SQ's culture / mindset leaning a bit towards "keep going as much as you can"? Is there room for a slightly more conservative philosophy, perhaps?

[SQ218]

From https://www.facebook.com/Airlinehubbuz

[ashkale]

Wow..that is one f00kd up door!

[Russ]

Yeah does not really look like just a "seal" problem. I suppose the investigation will yield more accurate root causes but it looks like a door frame failure rather than a seal failure. The assumption that it was just a seal could be wrong - and affected the decision to proceed with the flight.

[CarbonMan]

Happy to see that SQ8850 aka 317D is making its descent now along the Straits of Malacca, just past Muar. 500+ relieved pax.

[SQ228]

The equipment swaps begin:

SQ836 to PVG this evening has been replaced with a 773.

There are significant numbers of plane arrival/departure mismatches on iCargo suggesting that there might be a lot of scrambling around for available craft happening on the ground in Changi. Situations like this would not be much fun for operations staff I imagine.

[Russ]

At least SKD is now back so they are just missing SKE for some time.... well, they have to get the door changed, then fly it back, reset/replace 471 masks and oxygen tanks etc. A week maybe? By which time, they would have sorted out the snowball caused by being 2 A388s down for about 24 hours...

[CarbonMan]

From ST

Singapore Airlines will be offering a refund to passengers of SQ317 which had to make an emergency landing in Azerbaijan on Sunday.

The root cause of the problem that forced the plane to make the landing is currently being investigated, said the airline in a statement.

The airlines said it was focusing on a door on the main deck that appears to have suffered a leak, leading to the change in cabin pressure.

This door will be removed and examined thoroughly by SIA and specialists from airplane maker Airbus, said SIA in a statement. A replacement door will be fitted to the aircraft in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, before it returns to Singapore for a more thorough inspection, it added.

[ashkale]

Looking forward to how this unfolds, can already see "negligence" knives being sharpened !! ( everywhere except in SG courts)