I was on the frequency for this diversion. The crew said they had a “little engine problem that means we have to stay out of turbulence” and decided to go back to Los Angeles, although by the track log they were about halfway to Calgary. I would imagine some kind of ignition or fuel controller problem?
ATC couldn’t decide what route to assign them back to LAX, and finally copied the route of another Air Canada flight inbound to LAX.
I use FA to track all of our company’s flights, although a few are mysteriously dropped. I have also been playing with email alerts for the repositionining flights, which don’t show under the company callsign.
I hesitate to use our name because, frankly, the competition could also use FA to track our flights, and they don’t always play fair.
I have tried, as I fly around, to make note of interesting things I hear and check the flight tracks. I find “here’s what happened” more interesting than “what happened here?” I wish other pilots on the forum did the same. See, for example, http://discussions.flightaware.com/viewtopic.php?t=2301.
I do that too. Any time I hear something unusual on the radio like an emergency or even a plane that ATC can’t get in contact with, I write down the callsign and look it up later. It’s usually nothing, so it doesn’t warrent a post here. If it ever is interesting, I’ll let y’all know.
There was a ground hold at SEA today and I heard an Alaska flight holding at YKM VOR then request landing at YKM. Chinook Approach told them the ground hold was lifted but they still requested to land because they were “going to run out of gas”. She asked them if they were declaring an emergency and he said no, they were fine for YKM. They were on approach at that time anyway.
