VS20 cancelled

According to a post on FT, VS20 (departing 24th July, arriving 25th July) was diverted to BOS and then cancelled. This is also supported by the Flight Status module on VS' website. Anyone know anything more?

Cheers

Michael

Tech or medical I would guess. BOS does seem a bit far south for the VS20 (a friend was on the VS20 last year and got a medical diversion to YEG), but it could just be the way the jet-stream is at the moment (which also explains why the weather has been naff in the UK!).

Another reason that it could have been BOS is that there was a person on the plane who wasn't allowed to leave the US, so the plane was ordered back to US airspace - though normal practice would be arrest the person on arrival in the UK and put them on the next plane home, probably with some Police/Security Agent for company.

Whatever the reason for diversion, I'd guess it was cancelled at BOS because the crew would probably run out of hours before they could get to London, if the plane was able to depart once refuelled.

If it was a day when the VS54 was operating, they could probably accommodate displaced pax on that aircraft and minimise their delay too, which could have been an operational consideration for diverting to BOS, rather than stranding people for 24 hours in somewhere like Gander.

Mike

I was on the VS53 from BOS to LON on Sun morning. According to what I heard there it was something to do with the fuel supply on VS20 which meant it could only use fuel from one wing and not balance out. There was talk of diverting to Montreal but the captain decided they could last until Boston.

VS20 landed around 3am and had to sit on the tarmac for an hour or so until ground staff arrived. When I checked in for VS53 it was chaos as Virgin were trying to get passengers on our flight and the BA and AA flights. Our flight was delayed for an hour because of this.

Thanks for the excellent info guys

Cheers

Michael

quote:Originally posted by selector
I was on the VS53 from BOS to LON on Sun morning. According to what I heard there it was something to do with the fuel supply on VS20 which meant it could only use fuel from one wing and not balance out. There was talk of diverting to Montreal but the captain decided they could last until Boston.

Yeah, I can see how that will be a problem, and that it possibly won't manifest itself until in flight. The 747-400 carries fuel in the wings, the belly (in between the wings), and in the tail (vertical stabiliser), although it's unlikely there's anything loaded in the tail tank for SFO-LHR.

With an 11-12 hour fuel load, the fuel is drawn from the centre (belly) tank initially, which is topped up by any fuel in the tail tank draining into the centre tank. This feeds all four engines.

When the centre tank is empty, the engines then start drawing the fuel in the wings. I'd hazard a guess that this problem only became apparent when the fuel system switched from the centre tank to the wing tanks.

It could have been caused by a frozen valve, blocked feed pipe, or a leak in part of the fuel system which is triggered by drawing fuel in a certain way.

Based on the readings and alerts they recieved in the flight deck, the crew would elect to manually configure the fuel system to avoid the problem, work out how much fuel was then available to them, what their new endurance is, and based on that, elect where they would divert to.

The divert to BOS looks to have been operationally influenced - VS have local staff and handling agents, probably have MX agreements with a local operator, and access to onward flights for re-accomodation of the pax.

Cheers,
Mike

Wow, thanks for the great information. Was anyone on VS20 and have any further updates?

I am glad that everyone was safe!