G-VELD - lost in Mumbai ?

[?]
I arrived Mumbai on BA139 at 00.40 on the 22 February, to see G-VELD parked out by itself near the runway apron.

Anyone know why/what happened as I guess looking at the movements report it arrived that day(?) but did not return.

Looks like G-VATL (a rare event indeed) flew to Mumbai the following day by which time it looks like G-VELD then did the return slot, G-VATL heading direct to Lagos (empty?)

A colleague of mine was due to come back from Japan that day and the flight was cancelled. The explanation was because the plane had broken down and was stuck in Mumbai.

Chris

Give us some nice shiny new a/c on the BOM route, PLEASE?

Originally posted by cshore
A colleague of mine was due to come back from Japan that day and the flight was cancelled. The explanation was because the plane had broken down and was stuck in Mumbai.

Chris

No, G-VSEA did the return on the 23rd, I was onboard. Interestingly, the captain said we had a tech problem with the undercarriage retraction, which meant it would stay down for the first couple of minutes after take-off, and then close as normal. He said the usual about "normal procedure, nothing to worry about..." etc. but how common is this one? We were delayed by about an hour getting off the ground, which we didn't really make up on the journey. Just as well for UCS eh?

ATL did the LOS-LHR flight on the 23rd.

VS.

Apologies for assumptions[V]

Looked at aircraft movements and nothing on G-VELD for this period and G-VATL seems to be have been in 2 places at once[ii]

Originally posted by SteveE
No, G-VSEA did the return on the 23rd, I was onboard. Interestingly, the captain said we had a tech problem with the undercarriage retraction, which meant it would stay down for the first couple of minutes after take-off, and then close as normal. He said the usual about "normal procedure, nothing to worry about..." etc. but how common is this one? We were delayed by about an hour getting off the ground, which we didn't really make up on the journey. Just as well for UCS eh?

I'm sure the more knowledgable people around here will put me right, but under carriage retraction being delayed on purpose can often be caused by a system which brakes the wheels to a standstill before they are retracted being inoperative. Either this or on a short turn around, the brakes didn't cool sufficiently after landing and braking the wheels prior to gear up would likely put their temperatures above a desirable level again. So they are left to slow down naturally before coming into contact with the innards of the gear bay.