An Emirates Boeing 777 flying to the US yesterday ended up landing thousands of miles away in Russia after encountering control problems. The twinjet eventually diverted to St Petersburg, having changed its requested destination several times along the way.
The flight in question
Emirates flight EK225 is a regularly scheduled service that originates at the UAE flag carrier’s Dubai International Airport (DXB) hub. Its destination is California’s San Francisco International (SFO), on the US West Coast. According to data from FlightRadar24.com, its scheduled departure time is 08:45. After this, the flight has a long trip ahead of it.
Indeed, flight EK225 isn’t scheduled to touch down in San Francisco until 12:45 local time. Accounting for the difference in time between the service’s start and end points, this gives a lengthy total flight time of exactly 15 hours. Emirates has consistently used its Boeing 777s on this route, a corridor on which it is the only carrier to offer direct connections.
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A long way off course
Unfortunately, yesterday’s iteration of Emirates flight EK225 never got anywhere near San Francisco. This was despite it spending more than 10 hours in the air. Having departed slightly behind schedule, at 09:04 local time, it began to fly northwards. Such routings allow long-haul flights to make use of the earth’s curvature to fly shorter distances.
However, The Aviation Herald reports that, while flying over Russia’s Barents Sea, the flight’s crew requested to divert to Murmansk, around 700 NM (1,300 km) away. The request came about after encountering control problems with the 777 operating the flight. The nature of these is unclear, but Simple Flying has contacted Emirates for clarification.
Having set a course for Murmansk, the crew altered their destination to Ekaterinburg. Half an hour later, they changed their minds again, aiming for St Petersburg instead. 45 minutes away from the city’s Pulkovo Airport (LED), the pilots declared an emergency, but touched down safely on runway 28L at 18:17, after more than 10 hours in the air.
The aircraft involved
The aircraft that suffered the aforementioned control problems was a Boeing 777-300ER registered as A6-EQD. According to data from ch-aviation.com, the jet is 4.62 years old, with Emirates having received it back in June 2017. Onboard, it has 306 economy seats (10-abreast), 42 in business class (seven-abreast), and eight in first class (four-abreast).
FlightRadar24.com shows that the aircraft is yet to take to the skies since its diversion to St Petersburg yesterday. In any case, the situation is likely to be complicated for its passengers. After all, Emirates has temporarily cut nine US routes, including San Francisco, amid concerns regarding the rollout of 5G data, and its impact on airport operations. As such, it may not be a simple case of flying the passengers onward on a replacement aircraft.
What do you make of this incident? Have you ever been onboard a flight that has had to make such a diversion? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
Source: https://simpleflying.com/emirates-777-control-problems/
