V-Flyer

V-FAB operating MIA - LHR diverted due to smoke in the cockpit.

The flight diverted to Halifax Canada, I have not hard if this has had a knock on yet ?

I read about this over on a.net, apparently a 12 hr stop over which can't have been much fun for the crew and passengers. Can't see a knock on today though, the VS5 is scheduled to depart on time (with some cancellations of late, maybe VS can back fill a 346 more easily than before!).

Just noticed on baa.com that there is a VS106 from Halifax due to land at Heathrow at 0825 so I think that is proberly the flight that was meant to go/come from Miami

I saw yesterday that the MIA-LHR flight had been diverted to Halifax but didn't know the reason why. The delay seemed to be too long for it to be a medical diversion

We were on that flight. There was a strong smell of smoke in the front cabin. After that things happened quickly. To be safe all power to the cabins was turned off so we were in total darkness apart from the crews torches. The Captain explained to be safe we were diverting to Halifax and until landing he was turning off all unessential power, making a normal landing and with luck after checks by the ground staff be back on our way. However as we came to land we flew into a thunderstorm and the plane got struck by lightening. It was unmistakable, you actually felt and heard it - the plane juddered. We landed hard, the runway was the absolute minimum required for a 747 and the Captain apologised - in truth he did a fantastic job. We were surrounded by fire engines and the fire crews boarded. We then sat for about an hour on board while they looked for the source of the smoke. To compound matters, the handling crew at Halifax were on strike and there was no one to 'process' 363 passengers. Eventually we left the plane and were held in a lounge for over an hour. It was when they brought out the bottled water that you knew we were not going to be going back on board that night and sure enough we were eventually informed that they were not happy with the plane and we would be overnighting in Halifax. We finally left at about 11pm Halifax time Sunday night. Trip report to follow.

Thanks avalon for the first hand report [y]. You're home I assume, so things were sorted ... look forward to the full TR.

Thanks Avalon.

Glad you are back safely, will look forward to an 'interesting' TR. [:D]

Nick

Glad that you and everyone else on board got home safely[y]

buns

I would echo all the other comments.

Glad you and yours are safe.

Tim

Oooh, wow! I'm looking forward to reading that TR. [:0]

Thanks for the first hand information and glad you got home safely