Latest news with #787-8Dreamliner
Bloomberg
15-04-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
China Southern Halts Sale of Boeing Jets on US New-Plane Freeze
China Southern Airlines Co. suspended the sale of 10 used Boeing Co. 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, after Beijing's escalating trade war with the US put supply of aircraft to the mainland at risk. The airline, one of the country's Big Three state-owned carriers, had planned to replace the US-made widebodies with larger, newer planes better suited to China Southern's long-haul network. That approach was upended by the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump and the retaliatory measures put in place by Beijing over this past weekend.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Yahoo
The same Boeing passenger plane keeps being diverted after take-off... what's going on?
It was a bad few weeks for one particular Boeing plane, which appears to have been diverted four times in 25 days. An American Airlines 787-8 Dreamliner with the registration code N819AN appeared to repeatedly take off and then changing its direction back to its departure airport throughout January into February. The incident was first pointed out by a user on Bluesky last week who said of the plane 'If I'm getting the full picture, this 787 has had an incredibly bad month or so – like not quite like much I've really seen before really. Diversions, aborted take-offs, out of service, etc.' The first incident happened on 7 January. A flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Philadelphia, USA, ended up lasting only one hour and 46 minutes after changing its course and flying back to its departing airport, Amsterdam Schiphol, according to data collected by FlightAware. The plane did several circles around North Holland, chopping and changing its direction before flying out into the North Sea, turning around, and then landing back at the airport. Only three days later, another diversion happened with the same Boeing jet. On 10 January, the American Airlines flight left Philadelphia International at 10.17am for a journey to Dublin, Ireland. Just over an hour into the flight, it turned back to Philadelphia, unable to complete its transatlantic journey. The plane flew over New Jersey and out into the Atlantic Ocean before doing a U-turn back to the airport in Philadelphia. The unlucky streak continued for the aircraft, when two flights cancelled: one Dublin to Philadelphia journey on 13 January and a Barcelona, Spain, lfight to Philadelphia the day after. It is unclear what caused the cancellations, but this was not the end of this Boeing plane's flight turmoil, as two more diversions followed suit. On 19 January, the plane yet again changed its intended destination of Philadelphia following its departure from Barcelona just after 2pm, spending very little time in the air – landing back in Barcelona following only 34 minutes of travel time. The Boeing jet completed a flight from Barcelona to Dallas Fort Worth, where American Airlines has a maintenance hangar, on 23 January, and stayed there for several days. The most recent diversion occurred on 1 February, on a flight from Zurich, Switzerland, to Philadelphia, having departed at 10.39am. It didn't even last an hour in the air, and was back at Zurich's airport at 11.24am after circling the airspace near the airport a number of times. In between these diversions and cancellations, there has been successful completion of flights, such as a recent flight from Zurich to Philadelphia on Wednesday 5 February, that left on time and completed its eight-and-a-half-hour flight to the United States. American Airlines has yet to comment on what caused all these diversions. The Independent has contacted the airline for further information.
The Independent
06-02-2025
- The Independent
The same Boeing passenger plane keeps being diverted after take-off... what's going on?
It was a bad few weeks for one particular Boeing plane, which appears to have been diverted four times in 25 days. An American Airlines 787-8 Dreamliner with the registration code N819AN appeared to repeatedly take off and then changing its direction back to its departure airport throughout January into February. The incident was first pointed out by a user on Bluesky last week who said of the plane 'If I'm getting the full picture, this 787 has had an incredibly bad month or so – like not quite like much I've really seen before really. Diversions, aborted take-offs, out of service, etc.' The first incident happened on 7 January. A flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Philadelphia, USA, ended up lasting only one hour and 46 minutes after changing its course and flying back to its departing airport, Amsterdam Schiphol, according to data collected by FlightAware. The plane did several circles around North Holland, chopping and changing its direction before flying out into the North Sea, turning around, and then landing back at the airport. Only three days later, another diversion happened with the same Boeing jet. On 10 January, the American Airlines flight left Philadelphia International at 10.17am for a journey to Dublin, Ireland. Just over an hour into the flight, it turned back to Philadelphia, unable to complete its transatlantic journey. The plane flew over New Jersey and out into the Atlantic Ocean before doing a U-turn back to the airport in Philadelphia. The unlucky streak continued for the aircraft, when two flights cancelled: one Dublin to Philadelphia journey on 13 January and a Barcelona Spain, lfight to Philadelphia the day after. It is unclear what caused the cancellations, but this was not the end of this Boeing plane's flight turmoil, as two more diversions followed suit. On 19 January, the plane yet again changed its intended destination of Philadelphia following its departure from Barcelona just after 2pm, spending very little time in the air – landing back in Barcelona following only 34 minutes of travel time. The Boeing jet completed a flight from Barcelona to Dallas Fort Worth, where American Airlines has a maintenance hangar, on 23 January, and stayed there for several days. The most recent diversion occurred on 1 February, on a flight from Zurich, Switzerland, to Philadelphia, having departed at 10.39am. It didn't even last an hour in the air, and was back at Zurich's airport at 11.24am after circling the airspace near the airport a number of times. In between these diversions and cancellations, there has been successful completion of flights, such as a recent flight from Zurich to Philadelphia on Wednesday 5 February, that left on time and completed its eight-and-a-half-hour flight to the United States.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Yahoo
The curious case of the Boeing plane that diverted four times in 25 days
Credit: FlightAware An American Airlines Boeing 787 aircraft has diverted four times in four different cities within just 25 days, sparking debate among online aviation sleuths. The recurring incidents were flagged on the social media platform Bluesky, by an account under the name JonNYC, who wrote: 'If I'm getting the full picture, this 787 has had an incredibly bad month or so – not quite like much I've really seen before. Diversions, aborted take-offs, out of service.' On closer investigation, it does appear that the plane, a 787-8 Dreamliner with the registration code N819AN, has indeed had a thoroughly eventful 25 days. And thanks to online flight-tracking services like FlightRadar24 and Flight Aware, we can piece together the exact movements of the aircraft. Let's take a look at what we know about the four diversions of N819AN between Jan 7 and Feb 1, and try to answer the following question: why does the same plane keep taking off and aborting its journey not long after? The first issue with N819AN occurred on Tuesday, Jan 7, 2025. The plane was due to depart from Amsterdam Schiphol at 1.05 pm but ended up taking off at 2.46 pm. After taking off, the pilot made a northeasterly turn just eight minutes into the flight, performed an elaborate holding pattern (presumably to dump fuel in the North Sea) before landing at Schiphol at 4.16 pm. According to it was met by emergency vehicles on the runway. Three days after its first diversion, N819AN successfully completed its 7hr 18m flight to Philadelphia. It landed at 6.30 pm with a scheduled 3hr 30m turnaround, after which it was due to return across the Atlantic to Dublin. However, after taking off at 10.17 pm, the plane performed a 180-degree turn 18 minutes into the flight. It landed back in Philadelphia at 11.12 pm. Three days later, on Jan 13, N819AN successfully made it to Barcelona. However, the following day its flight to Philadelphia was cancelled. Then, on Jan 19, on a scheduled flight back across the Atlantic to Philadelphia, the plane once again diverted. The plane took off at 2.05 pm and appeared to begin its return to Barcelona Airport just 11 minutes into the flight. It landed at 2.39 pm. On Jan 23, N819AN landed at Dallas-Fort Worth International, where American Airlines has a maintenance hangar. The aircraft remained at Dallas for seven days, before completing four successful flights (to Philadelphia, to Madrid, back to Philadelphia and then to Zurich). Things were looking up. Or were they? On Feb 1, N819AN took off from Zurich at 10.39 am but started its return to the airport after just seven minutes of the flight. It landed back at Zurich Airport 45 minutes later, at 11.24 am. Usually, a plane diversion occurs due to harsh weather conditions. However, pilots may also divert due to medical emergencies, security threats, natural disasters, incidents at the arrival airport, or mechanical issues. It is not clear why these four flights were diverted – The Telegraph awaits a response on this matter from American Airlines and Boeing. Here's what we do know: N819AN (a 787-8 Dreamliner) first flew on March 27 2017, making it nearly eight years old. Online sources suggest that American Airlines' fleet has an average age of between 12 and 13 years old, so N819AN is by no means poised for retirement in the near future. We also have some further (unverified) details courtesy of Simon Hradecky, a software developer who founded the website The Aviation Herald, which tracks aircraft incidents around the world. On Jan 9, commenting on the Amsterdam diversion, he posted: 'The crew announced an issue with the flaps so they needed to return to Amsterdam. The flight was postponed to the next day as flight AA-9605, but could not depart with the crew announcing a hydraulic leak.' Trying to make sense of the situation, pilot Brian Smith, who flew Boeing aircraft for commercial airlines over a 26-year period, explains why the recurring diversions could be cause for concern. 'It's unusual for an aircraft to experience so many technical diversions in such a short space of time. If the same defect keeps recurring, that is a cause for concern, because it implies that the engineering department is unable to definitively identify the root cause of the problem,' says Smith. 'A diversion in flight is a decision made by the captain after all checklists have been completed, and options discussed with the co-pilot; it is necessarily a collaborative process. Checklists follow a logical series of steps to determine the fault, isolate the defective system and if necessary, direct the crew to 'Plan to land at the nearest suitable airfield' in the case of a serious issue. 'In the vast majority of cases, faults are rectified satisfactorily and there is a clear paper trail that describes what rectification has been carried out. Some defects are deemed 'acceptable' when they do not have any discernible impact on the safety of flight and any maintenance and operational procedures required are adhered to. 'Defects that recur often require deeper fault finding to find the problem, but this is rare. Modern aircraft have extensive Built in Test Equipment (BITE) which can give in-depth clues to what is wrong. Sometimes it's a computer or sensor that is playing up. In older aircraft there may be something like a chafed wire or connector; the possibilities are myriad. On the topic of flaps defects, Smith says: 'Flap defects are uncommon, and rarely present a serious problem. If however, they won't retract, a diversion will be needed because the drag of the extended flap will create a fuel penalty, making a longer flight implausible. All aircraft remain fully controllable even with the most complex of flap defects. 'The aircraft in question clearly needs to be examined very thoroughly and should not be released again until the fault is rectified. This might even trigger a test flight or series of flights, without passengers, to prove its airworthiness. I am sure the airline will do what is right in this case and passengers should not be unduly concerned.' As of Feb 4, aircraft N819AN remains on the runway at Zurich Airport. The Telegraph will keep an eye on developments, and will update this page as and when we receive a response from American Airlines or Boeing. If you wish to track the aircraft's movements yourself, you can do so by following this page on Flight Aware. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
