BA462
LHR-MAD
13th October 2012
767-336ER/G-BZHB
Seat: 08K Club Europe
Scheduled: 15:15/18:40
Off Stand: 15:54
On Stand: 16:31
At 15:25 boarding started.
I was pleased to see that this was one of the refurbished planes.
Turns out I was the last to enter the pretty empty Club Europe cabin, as I was asked if the seat I had was ok by the cabin crew and that if I wanted to move feel free.
Just before pushback, hot towels were handed out.
The captain came over the PA and announced a flying time of 2 hours. He also mentioned that due to the weather there were a few problems with departures. After my trip to Amsterdam a few weeks back being delayed due to the rain, I was having my doubts if Heathrow could actually operate in the rain.
At 15:48 the jet bridge detached and at 15:54 we pushed back. And that's when the fun began. I noticed that we had been sitting on the Tarmac after pushback for quite a while with the engines running – nearly fifteen minutes in fact. At first I thought that maybe we were being held up by ATC for some reason.
At 16:12 the captain was on the PA again and gave some news that no a.netter wants to hear after they had chosen a flight specifically for the aircraft type. The plane had a technical problem and that he was currently in contact with the ground crew as to what the best course of action was – weather it was best for the ground crew to tell him how to fix it or return to stand. At 16:18 the captain came over again, and said that it was a hardware problem rather than a software glitch and that we would indeed be heading back on to stand. He also mentioned that he didn't know at this time if it would be quicker to fix this plane of find another. I was hoping for this one to be fixed!
At 16:29, we finally moved. But not to anywhere interesting. Just back to the same stand we had pushed back from.
Whilst waiting, the afternoon tea service started.
I asked how many hours the crew had left and the flight attendant said they had 12, so there were no worries about this flight being cancelled for that reason. Only unless something was seriously wrong with the aircraft. They also mentioned that even if this flight was cancelled, there were another two Iberia flights later tonight with plenty of room on, so I will get to Madrid tonight.
The next hour or so was spent watching the ground crew go back and forth between the flight deck and slowly eating the sandwiches that were put in front of me.
At just past 17:10, the captain came over again and this time said that we would now be flying with Iberia as this plane couldn't be fixed. Annoying as I was looking forward to flying this 767! Luckily I've arranged a flight later in the year on a pair of BA 767's so it wasn't a major loss. Although I was still pretty disappointed.
After having a brief chat with one of the cabin crew about all things aviation related – including a couple of thing he asked me not to share here about the 767 fleet - he very kindly invited me up to the flight deck. Things were a lot more relaxed on this trip and I spent a good 15 minutes up there chatting about the problem (faulty pitot heater), taking pics and aviation in general. He also mentioned that the ground crew had given him permission to fly, although he had to avoid any icy conditions. He wasn't confident of being able to do this with the rain around, plus the fact the return flight from Madrid would be around 22:00, so in the interests of safety he decided to stay on the ground. Also the fact that fitting the part would take 45 minutes, however getting the part to the plane, testing and paperwork would mean a very lengthy delay. I also mentioned the problems I had with my flights to Nice and Amsterdam – the captain mentioned that I must be unlucky as this was the first major problem he had in eighteen years!
At 17:40, it was back into the lounge, and new boarding passes were issued.
Luckily I still had a window seat. The ground agent was also quite insistent that due to Iberia not serving any food, that I should go to Starbucks and top up. I told him I already had, although he said I should go again and tell them to bill it to BA! Also interesting to note was that there were only around 30 people on board the original flight. Including 7 in the Club World section so a very low load.
IB3167
LHR-MAD
13th October 2012
A321/EC-JEJ Riofrio
Seat: 03F
Scheduled: 18:40/22:10
Off Stand: 18:53
On Stand: 22:13
Boarding started for the second time today at 18:20. Most people decided that they were going to use the fast track lane, despite a member of ground crew telling everybody it was for premium pax only.
The business class cabin on this A321 was quite full. Hardly surprising really considering it had two flights worth of people in it now. Despite this I still didn't have a seatmate.
We pushed back and made our way out to runway 27R.
And finally, just before 19:10, we made it into the air, nearly four hours later than anticipated.
It was interesting to note that there were no announcements from the flight deck. In fact the crew were a bit dis-interested in general I found. They weren't rude, but not overly friendly either. Certainly very different to the BA crew from earlier, who were very friendly and seemed like they couldn't do enough for you. At least they were quite good looking!!
Around twenty minutes after take off the cabin crew came round and took the dinner orders. After eating in the lounge twice, eating on the aborted BA flight and having a cinnamon bun after the ground staff told me there wasn't any food served on board, I think it was safe to say I made a profit on these flights purely by the amount of food I ate! Meal choices were fish or meat... A little bit ambiguous there. After giving a confused look, she elaborated a little more. The meat was a hamburger. So I went for that. Although it was more a lump of beef than a hamburger.
As it was now nighttime, watching the world go by beneath us was a bit of a non-starter.
Therefore, the rest of the flight was spent browsing through the many newspapers I'd acquired throughout the day, and the inflight mag.
Oh and updating the trip report of course! I also asked the cabin crew what time we were due to arrive into Madrid. They said around 22:00 local, so the total flight time was around 1 hour 50 minutes. Interesting how the A321 could do the trip 10 minutes quicker than the 767. If it hadn't broken down of course.
Initial descent started just before 21:30 local, although there wasn’t much to be seen tonight.
We touched down at just before 22:05 local, around 4 hours behind schedule, and made our way over to an impressive, and quiet T4.Then it was down on to the Metro for the 30 minute or so ride to the hotel.I arrived at the hotel just before 23:30 local.
Phew made it!
