G-VAST VS073 General Emergency

Now scheduled to leave20:20 n(

[Neil]

I hope I'm wrong, but I have real fear this flight might get cancelled until tomorrow soon - it keeps being pushed back and even if it left now it would mean a gone midnight arrival at MCO and a 2/3am flight back.

[Neil]

I hope I'm wrong, but I have real fear this flight might get cancelled until tomorrow soon - it keeps being pushed back and even if it left now it would mean a gone midnight arrival at MCO and a 2/3am flight back.

Im delighted to say I was wrong - pushed back at 20:12 from the gate y)

Good news for all concerned!

and looks like a 2.30ish flight 74 back to MCO which is not ideal, but could be a whole lot worse, should aid sleeping on the flight.

Guess there will be a reasonable delay on the 73 or 75 tomorrow as there is unlikely to be spare a/c around....

Just taken off... according to flightradar24 its taking a strange routing out of LGW - Gone very West and just now turned North over Maidstone.

[honey lamb]

It's just past Northampton, heading towards Coventry, north Wales, Dublin and places west

It's just past Northampton, heading towards Coventry, north Wales, Dublin and places west

never mind about that, honey lamb. Where is your trip report from your Vancouver-LHR flight? Some of us are waiting.

Looks like it was a flaps issue, preventing climbing too high/fast.

At least LGW engineers managed to fix it without an ovenight delay...

[Darren Wheeler]

http://www.avherald.com/h?article=454c7386&opt=0

[Neil]

Looks like AST will be operating the 74 back at 2:30am and tomorrows 73 which is now scheduled for a 5:30pm departure, so 3 and a half hours behind schedule - not great but could have been far worse I suppose.

[honey lamb]

not great but could have been far worse I suppose.

Well done, grasshopper. You have learned well

Hey all...

I was a passenger on this flight. I am now safely in Tampa, Fl and thought I would let you know some details. The issue was a flap not fully retracting and stowing properly. From what I could see it was the left front Krueger Flap. Plane was fine and safe, and the ground crew upon arrival at Gatwick johnny on the spot waiting with the part and technicians. Unfortunately, we did not depart Gatwick until 8PM. Its been a long day, but big kudos for the Virgin flight crew who voluntarily stayed on and worked beyond their allotted time, otherwise the flight would have been canceled.

G-VAST is good as new and flew gallantly to Orlando!

Cheers,

Ken

^) Well done Virgin, Good news all round. oo)

glad you got here safe Ken....now Isaac to deal with !!!!!!!!!!certainly a trip to remember.......and you got the Convention up there too so extra hot air

[Neil]

not great but could have been far worse I suppose.

Well done, grasshopper. You have learned well

|:) |:) |:)

Flew on the flight too. Completely knackered today.
Cabin Crew were absolutely marvellous.

Glad to hear all worked out well, and particularly well done to the crew for going the extra mile to make sure the flight happened.
I am sure it saved Virgin a ton of cash, headaches and earned them a lot of kudos.
It's these sorts of stories which help boost an airlines reputation. Incidents happen all the time, it's how you communicate and handle them is the key.

How can the crew voluntarily work beyond their hours - are these not legally set?

How can the crew voluntarily work beyond their hours - are these not legally set?

If I remember correctly provided the staff in question have signed a waiver then some of these silly EU rules can be bypassed.
We had to get some of our teams to sign these type of paperwork so they still had the ability to react to out of hours situations, do overtime etc.

How can the crew voluntarily work beyond their hours - are these not legally set?

If I remember correctly provided the staff in question have signed a waiver then some of these silly EU rules can be bypassed.
We had to get some of our teams to sign these type of paperwork so they still had the ability to react to out of hours situations, do overtime etc.

The CAA set the rules not the EU here - that's the working time directive that most companies require you to opt out of.

How can the crew voluntarily work beyond their hours - are these not legally set?

If I remember correctly provided the staff in question have signed a waiver then some of these silly EU rules can be bypassed.
We had to get some of our teams to sign these type of paperwork so they still had the ability to react to out of hours situations, do overtime etc.

The CAA set the rules not the EU here - that's the working time directive that most companies require you to opt out of.

So please fill my ignorance here.
I don't get how the CAA would set rules on what time crews can work till??
Working on an issue to get a aircraft ready to make legal Take off / landing times yes but why would the CAA set times on what (possibly multiple shifts) crews could work on aircraft for and if that is the case how did this crew work after their time??

The CAA have approved the flight time limitations.

In this case the crew would of reported for duty at midday allowing them to work for 15 hours. Since it became a 2 sector day it was reduced to 14 hours and 15 mins.

The captain can increase the hours by upto 3 hours if a flight is delayed or diverted and the crew can work upto a maximum of 19 hours.

[preiffer]

I think you two might be discussing two different sets of "crew". Ground technicians, and cabin crew... Both operate under very different rules.

I think you two might be discussing two different sets of "crew". Ground technicians, and cabin crew... Both operate under very different rules.

I think you may be correct!!
My comments were to the ground crew fixing the aircraft, I can see the reasoning behind flight and cabin crew not being able to work too many hours straight.