SQ 317 Diverted to Baku

[SQ22]

Has anyone wondered how the ground handling company managed to dish out 1,000 meals (500 meals x 2 meal services) at short notice? They must have had emergency procedures in place. I also wonder what the passengers were served given the unique port they departed from.

[SQ228]

Has anyone wondered how the ground handling company managed to dish out 1,000 meals (500 meals x 2 meal services) at short notice? They must have had emergency procedures in place. I also wonder what the passengers were served given the unique port they departed from.

I have and that's what really makes my head spin about operating an A380. When everything goes to plan, great. When it doesn't the scale of the problem is overwhelming.

Perhaps TK or LH could try to assist being Star* as GYD is a port for them, but it is a regional port for them, not a long haul, and most likely they use planes that carry 125, not 475, so they probably don't really have much infrastructure or many service agreements in place. And what do you do for your passengers with specific food allergies who ordered a "bland meal" for instance? Parents with infants. Elderly. First class passengers who want to be 'acknowledged' (I'm sure some of our F flyers on here would have seen that type in action before!)

On top of that, lucky GYD just had a terminal expansion. I wouldn't imagine they have much of a gate lounge set up for an A380 and their regular operations might not be able to suddenly free up 3 empty gate lounges for a foreign carrier's stranded passengers that they have no dealings with. You even have to wonder how many terminal staff can speak languages other than Russian or Azerbaijani well enough to really assist.

Any armchair commentators who weren't there and want to criticise should think of all that first.

[boing]

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking...-mountains-201
"they had cleared the airplane as serviceable" This decision come from on board tech crew or airport ?

That decision comes from the ground engineer based in LHR. Based on a show I saw on BBC about LHR operations, SIA has its own dedicated engineer in LHR.

To further add on to Inflight Sup's post, diverting a flight is not an easy decision. There must be concrete grounds based on hard facts to warrant a diversion, or grounding an aircraft for that matter.

Starting from the ground, hissing doors in aircraft's happen quite often than most travellers think. In most cases, it's the seal not seating properly due to something stuck in the doorway.

If the engineer sees that there was no drop in cabin pressure, overheating aircon packs or uncontrollable temperature drop, the door has cleared its first hurdle as it shows that there was no problem with pressurizing the aircraft.

Do note that when the cabin's pressure or temperature fluctuates from a safe range, a warning will be flashed in the cockpit. Along with messages to Singapore's maintenance control.

Next, the door itself. There is no way the door could have been in the warped position as shown in the pictures in LHR prior to the flight to SIN. The ground engineer does his walkaround check upon arrival and just before departure. The flight crew also do their own checks. And based on the position of the door, it would have easily caught the attention of the catering crew if it was in such a warped position. I believe the door upper plate must have warped out of place during the flight to SIN causing the sudden loss in pressure. If the door seals were intact and there is no visible structural defects in the door, there is no reason for the engineer to ground the aircraft just simply based on "loud noise".

He would have informed SIN to further look it up upon arrival in SIN as it is the base station and they could easily pull it out of service for further checks without disrupting the fleet scheduling.

For the pilots, as I had mentioned earlier, if there was no indication in the cockpit of any cabin pressure loss, temperature drop or overheating packs, there are no concrete grounds for them to turn back to LHR. The ground engineer had cleared it. No one knows for sure if the interior picture of the warped door cover was taken before or after the decision to emergency descent.

There are SOPs and OPMs regarding this. On hindsight, it seems they should have returned to LHR. But they did what they had to with the hard facts present before them in a dynamic situation. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

[FN-GM]

It makes me laugh that some people on the internet suggested there was a hole in the door and that they have stuffed blankets in them to plug them up!

[Inflight Sup]

The grounded flight would have their catering equipment off loaded and cleaned. The catering facilities at Baku would be able to cope as it would be just cleaning and not recatering. Time is not an essential factor. They would have returned all equipment by the time the door is rectified. Staff from Moscow would supervise this cleaning and inventory controls... it would be tempting to souvenior SQ equipment, if not, items associated with an A380 aircaft

The flight that departed SIN to pick up pax would be catered 2 meals. There is ample space even to bring back one set of meal equipment from the grounded aircraft, but that would take more time. Since no A380 aircraft serves Baku there will be issues in transferring equipment to the upper decks, not impossible but time consuming. The flight is already late.

[Russ]

Anyone know if SKE is back in SIN yet?

[NoChanceToDance]

Anyone know if SKE is back in SIN yet?

I believe it left Baku on the evening of the 12th as SQ8860

[scooby5]

My colleagues A380 I think was switched out due to a door vibration issue and he only left at 7:30pm instead of around 5pm, but I've not looked into that one in detail yet. If any of you have better info, would be good to learn something from you.

[lingua101]

Maybe now for the preferred seat selection for A380 emex rows, they will pay you USD50 if you choose to sit there...

On a more serious note, whatever the cause of the incident, the crew got the plane down safely, and I thought SQ responded well by sending an A380 to retrieve all pax at very short notice and bringing them all to Singapore a day later, bringing at least that chapter of the pax's experience to a close.

well... i think the end result is good. But I have been reading that there is nothing from the flight deck for the first 30 minutes or so.

I am the paranoid type that like to hear some annoucement from flight deck while we pass through turbulance. At least I want to get some confirmation that the flight crew is on top of the situation.

I can imagine, 30 minutes of silence on this kind of situation must be very very damn long. I think SQ should send their crew to learn better skills in crisis management communication, which I do not think is being handle best (from what I read), although they did a good job at the end to bring the plane into safe landing. I guess the pilots must be rather stress also.

[flying.monkeyz]

well... i think the end result is good. But I have been reading that there is nothing from the flight deck for the first 30 minutes or so.

I am the paranoid type that like to hear some annoucement from flight deck while we pass through turbulance. At least I want to get some confirmation that the flight crew is on top of the situation.

I can imagine, 30 minutes of silence on this kind of situation must be very very damn long. I think SQ should send their crew to learn better skills in crisis management communication, which I do not think is being handle best (from what I read), although they did a good job at the end to bring the plane into safe landing. I guess the pilots must be rather stress also.

Pilots' priority is to fly the plane first. Everything else can wait.

[lingua101]

Pilots' priority is to fly the plane first. Everything else can wait.

Well I understand. They have to concentrate to overcome the crisis and may be quite a stressful situation.

We were not there, so it may be the best way to handle anyway.... We will never know

[flyguy]

Flying and landing the plane should not be an issue except for the unfamiiarity of the place and terrain to watch out for. But with an announcement from the flight deck to the passengers would save alot of anxiety. And besides there were 4 pilots on board and they should all be in the flight deck upon depressurisation.

[flying.monkeyz]

Flying and landing the plane should not be an issue except for the unfamiiarity of the place and terrain to watch out for. But with an announcement from the flight deck to the passengers would save alot of anxiety. And besides there were 4 pilots on board and they should all be in the flight deck upon depressurisation.

When pilots are trained they are trained to AVIATE, NAVIGATE, then COMMUNICATE. Fly the plane first. Only if circumstances allow and spare capacity exists then do the rest.

An announcement would be nice. As a passenger I would like to be updated on the situation. But I also fly, and in situation like this my team's priority is to save the aircraft first. Everything else is secondary. The cockpit will be very busy and everyone will be occupied with something important.

[scooby5]

An announcement would be nice. As a passenger I would like to be updated on the situation. But I also fly, and in situation like this my team's priority is to save the aircraft first. Everything else is secondary. The cockpit will be very busy and everyone will be occupied with something important.

But as somebody mentioned earlier, aren't there two flight crews on board for the flight from LHR to SIN? Given reports that the first incident only happened around 20min from take-off I doubt the relief crew would be sleeping.

[FlyBoy]

Any ideas on when SKE will resume normal flying ?