My first post!
We were on AA3287 from GJT to DWF on February 5, 2018. At some point our pilot made a abrupt (and terrifying) maneuver and we had to land in Amarillo before heading to DFW. We never got a reason from AA (or Envoy Air) as to what happened.
We’re frequent travelers and have never felt this type of move. It was terrible. We’ve looked for an explanation and can’t seem to find one. Does anyone have a resource that would be able to explain what happened? I looked for the air traffic recordings but couldn’t find any for Amarillo.
First questions to ask:
How did it look outside your window? What I mean here is that the diversion could have been weather related. You’re heading right into the southern and bottom tip of the most active section of Tornado Alley. If any type of phenomena like that were happening (storms, heavy rain, hail, tornado, etc.) the best course of action would have been to divert and wait for the weather to move on from your location and then get you to your destination.
If it weren’t weather, did anyone look or appear to seem ill on the aircraft? medical emergencies are a definite cause for diversion as the biggest goal for that is to land the plane.
Outside of that the harder things to look at would be mechanical, which you would have heard or noticed, major delays at KDFW which could have lead your flight to having low fuel.
In short there are many things to look at that could go on around you that could have caused that. I’d look into those first, in addition to any recordings for KAMA. If ZFW (Fort Worth ARTCC) is covered, they may have something as well.
BL.
