G-VKSS MCO Return 19/01/13

I see that G-VKSS returned to MCO last night whilst operating the VS76. A full airfield emergency was declared by all accounts due to an "engine issue" and thankfully landed safely. A huge well done too all the crew oo)

Jon

Indeed well done to the crew.

There is a rather nice elitism spat brewing on the VS Face Book page involving PE pax being identified and getting a better hotel than those in Y.

Reports on FB are that it was an engine + bird issue.

[Darren Wheeler]

Nothing on AVHearld at the moment, but being a weekend, it can be slow to update.

Indeed well done to the crew.

There is a rather nice elitism spat brewing on the VS Face Book page involving PE pax being identified and getting a better hotel than those in Y.

Reports on FB are that it was an engine + bird issue.

The comments on the Virgin Atlantic/Holidays Facebook pages do amuse me at times, they seem to attract absolute jobsworths!

Jesus! I have to fly these routes this weekend! :/ scared enough as it is!

[Darren Wheeler]

Apparently it was a bird strike, but not too much on AVHearld

http://avherald.com/h?article=45c7d5a1&opt=0

I was sitting on G-VROM, waiting to push back on our way back to LGW when I saw G-VKSS arriving to the terminal but I obviously didn't know about it and thought the second Manchester flight was seriously late ...
Now I understand why our flight was delayed.
Good to hear that no one was hurt.

I know we can all titter at the sheer ignorance of people (like on FC "it's was an A320" or "was it an A380") and the self interest when it comes to what hotel etc. And I am sure that there was a little chaos in trying to sort things out. It can't have been fun to experience, whether a passenger or crew.

The main thing is that everyone is safe and I for one would start there then worry about the little stuff afterwards. Kudos to the crew indeed for getting everyone back safely, as we know bird strikes can be deadly, so my hat off to them.

Jesus! I have to fly these routes this weekend! :/ scared enough as it is!

It won't be easy given the concerns you've articulated over the past few months but remember that standard procedures brought everyone one home safe so that they could start complaining about the standard of hotels...

Well said Slinky - dead on as always.

People are rarely as informed as many on this site, and to them, having their one holiday a year end with a "bang" after take-off plus associated smell of ingested bird would be scary to most.

If it ends there, it's an over-reaction.

If it doesn't, as in the Hudson ditching, it's a different ball game - both planes have 2 engines...

I know we can all titter at the sheer ignorance of people (like on FC "it's was an A320" or "was it an A380") and the self interest when it comes to what hotel etc. And I am sure that there was a little chaos in trying to sort things out. It can't have been fun to experience, whether a passenger or crew.

The main thing is that everyone is safe and I for one would start there then worry about the little stuff afterwards. Kudos to the crew indeed for getting everyone back safely, as we know bird strikes can be deadly, so my hat off to them.

I wasnt mocking the incident but some of the comments that I saw last night - have not looked to see if there were any more or what the VS response had been. Saying that the response from some others was pretty robust ( I rarely look at the VS FB page let alone comment on it)

But if all people have to complain about is pax in PE getting a better hotel and complaints about not being given a hotel as they got off the plane (slight exagerration!) then I think ( from what I read so far) that VS have done a pretty good job in handling this - just as they did with the LGW incident last year.

[Darren Wheeler]

There will always be ways to improve things on the ground when this sort of incient happens, but as they saying goes - "any landing you can walk away from is a good landing".

some people seem to think Virgin shouls have 200 hotel rooms 'on tap'and be able to get a plane load of people into them in half an hour....as always the ground staff get no thanks just slagged off for doing their best in an emergency situation.........the hotel comments are hilarious as is the 'class envy'

lucky some of them dont come on this site !!!!!!!!!!

[Darren Wheeler]

some people seem to think Virgin shouls have 200 hotel rooms 'on tap'and be able to get a plane load of people into them in half an hour....as always the ground staff get no thanks just slagged off for doing their best in an emergency situation.........the hotel comments are hilarious as is the 'class envy'

lucky some of them dont come on this site !!!!!!!!!!

Some of the comments are best summed up by - Haters will Hate

ooo Slinky I see you have dipped your toe into the mire !!! Totally correct though, after eing brought bback safe and sound all some people can do is moan............


interesting too that the first complaint says 'after a frantic 2 hours' yet av herald says they landed 30 minutes after take off !!!!!!!! nothing like a good bit of exaggeration.......

I wasnt mocking the incident but some of the comments that I saw last night

No offence intended to you Mr TB, more of a general comment.

I wasnt mocking the incident but some of the comments that I saw last night

No offence intended to you Mr TB, more of a general comment.

I forgive you !

interesting too that the first complaint says 'after a frantic 2 hours' yet av herald says they landed 30 minutes after take off !!!!!!!! nothing like a good bit of exaggeration.......

Info I have is that the flight time was 30 mins.

[Darren Wheeler]

The info starting to trickle out indicates that this was a serious incident.

Kudos to the flight and cabin crew.

Hi all,

I was on that flight, just got back, it was a bit crazy, but glad to be safe!

Kudos to the pilot, he landed the thing perfectly, we didn't know how serious it was until later, but he did a very smooth dare I say perfect landing!

Virgin did a very good job of sorting the hotel, I was economy, and we got the florida mall, it was comfortable, clean and really nice.

There were a number of people complaining about the premium getting a different hotel, but I think the majority were happy, they had it smooth and sorted as soon as we were off the plane.

It only got crazy the next day, when they had us queue for three hours to tell us that we were going back on a BA flight, and we had to go queue at the BA desk for another hour, only to find out that they wouldn't honour any excess/extra baggage, unless you paid again, and i understand people couldn't sit together. we Eventually got on the 8:10 to gatwick, (virgin flight) got there and were mini bussed back to manchester.

Bit of a pain but cest la vie, the two free meals in the airport food court were lovely!

Some bits could have been done better, but all in all wasn't too bad, lost my plush yeti from Everest on the to and froing, but gives me an excuse to go back....

Hi Alex

Thanks for dropping in and giving an on the spot report.

Out of interest, what were you told on the flight itself?

Paul

The Florida mall is a really nice hotel can't believe other people were complaining. Glad you got back safely in the end

Well done VS crew......A real credit to SRB...sounds like the whole situation was dealt with brilliantly from the Flight Crew to the Ground crew y) y) y) y)

On the flight we were just told there was a problem with one of the engines, didn't hear anything about a bird strike until a bit later

It was kind of funny, in that I was sitting there thinking this is a really quiet plane, not realising that one of the engines wasn't working!

I only started to worry when a call came out for someone to go to the cockpit immediatley, and one of the flight attendents all strapped themselves in, but then when things had calmed down a bit she did explain it appeared to be a bird strike to one of the engines.

They kept things all calm, organised and I'm glad they did.

The plane did seem to be pitched upwards at the time, and seemed to be going really slowly, they did some checks and then told us they had to return to Orlando. After landing, they had to tug us back in, as the brakes were that hot there was a risk of the tires deflating.

The pilots got a big round of applause, if I had the chance I'd buy them some beers, the landing seemed really smooth

When we were down we had to wait while they hosed the engines with what ever they use.

I'll be honest, I didn't realise how serious it was until the next day!

There was all kinds of rumour going round, like an existing fault, a bird flew in, a flock of buzzards, it certainly gave people a chance to talk at our free breakfast the next morning.

It was only when the virgin rep arrived and told us that it had been a flock of buzzards had taken out an engine, the rest I found out from you folks

Thanks for the report Alex.