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Alaska Airlines flight from Juneau makes emergency landing in Vancouver
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- A U.S. passenger flight has made an emergency landing at Vancouver International Airport. Alaska Airlines Flight 76 was en route from Juneau to Seattle when problems arose with one of the plane's two electrical systems. The Boeing 737-400 touched down in Vancouver shortly before 5 p.m. local time on Sunday. (www.adn.com) Mehr...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
As a USAF pilot for 7 years, a major airline pilot career and the last number of years as a Corporate Pilot flying jets and a total of 27,000 hours with over 50 years experience, I must say that sparkie624s comments come as a complete surprise to me. Read the FAA definition of minimum fuel. A diversion is not in itself an emergency. Only the press calls it such. Prior to 9/11, the FAA would not even ask the pilot why he wanted a new destination. Now they ask for a reason but its just paperwork.
Under the definition of "Min Fuel" it in itself is not the part of the emergency, but it is considered an emergency action, even though so minor... In the case I mention, the diversion in the eyes of the company was for maintenance convenience... Easier to change a window at a base with a Hangar vs somewhere in upstate New York in the winter time. Since the Diversion was for a maintenance reason it has to be reported, and the declaring min fuel is a declaration to ATC which has the potential to turn into an emergency if he does not get a priority at his destination. The biggest driver was the Diversion and the fact they would have never diverted to CVG if it had not been a maintenance issue and that made it report-able.
They could have almost coasted into SEATAC. Now the customs and no company maintenance in B.C. Maybe Bellingham can't handle international?
I think that the term is "precautionary" landing. Was not an emergency.
In the terms of aviation any time a plane diverts to an unscheduled landing location due to a maintenance issue it is counted as an emergency even if an emergency was not declared in the eyes of the FAA.
A good example was a pilot that I was working via ACARS advised me that his Captains Windshield Heat was not working, Due to icing he had to choose a lower altitude and therefore declared "Min Fuel", at the same time he was flying directly over CVG which was a maintenance base for us and we had a spare plane ready. The company diverted him to CVG, the crew canceled the "Min Fuel" notice, moved the PAX to the new plane while CVG Did a window change. That counted as a diversion and the fact that he filed Min Fuel was counted as an emergency, even though no emergency was ever declared or really ever existed. With all of that said, they parked the plane on neighboring gates, the crew and everyone worked together, and somehow only arrived to the destination 30 minutes late...
In the eyes of the FAA we still had to treat this as an emergency because they preformed an emergency action... In this case 2 of them.... 1 - Crew Declared Min Fuel, 2 - Crew diverted due to a maintenance issue. At no time was the plane in any danger and both were done as a precaution as the crew could have made it safely. The diversion was for maintenance convience, but it did get the FAA involved.
A good example was a pilot that I was working via ACARS advised me that his Captains Windshield Heat was not working, Due to icing he had to choose a lower altitude and therefore declared "Min Fuel", at the same time he was flying directly over CVG which was a maintenance base for us and we had a spare plane ready. The company diverted him to CVG, the crew canceled the "Min Fuel" notice, moved the PAX to the new plane while CVG Did a window change. That counted as a diversion and the fact that he filed Min Fuel was counted as an emergency, even though no emergency was ever declared or really ever existed. With all of that said, they parked the plane on neighboring gates, the crew and everyone worked together, and somehow only arrived to the destination 30 minutes late...
In the eyes of the FAA we still had to treat this as an emergency because they preformed an emergency action... In this case 2 of them.... 1 - Crew Declared Min Fuel, 2 - Crew diverted due to a maintenance issue. At no time was the plane in any danger and both were done as a precaution as the crew could have made it safely. The diversion was for maintenance convience, but it did get the FAA involved.
It wasn't an emergency landing. It was an unscheduled landing. No big deal.