[Anonymous]

[clearsky]

I was travelling on Emirates flight EK 106 from Athens to Dubai on 2nd June in Business class. Plane ran into problems with hydraulics upon departing from gate. After 2 hours of trying to fix it, flight was postponed to next day morning. Emirates informed a new plane would be sent from Dubai.

Next day, 9am – no new plane. Same plane used. Same food as previous day. Same crew (I won’t go into Emirates handling of hotel stays etc. which was terrible).
Two hours into flight, pilot calls bursar into the cockpit over intercom. Plane starts turning and inflight map shows new destination! Yet no information from pilot. Few minutes later we are told that one of the engines has failed and we’ll be making a landing in Istanbul airport, an hour away. Pilot doesn’t know if it is connected to hydraulic failure of yesterday.
No apology from any Emirates staff.

In Istanbul, mad scramble to re-book passengers. Emirates diverts a half-empty plane from Rome to take stranded passengers. Others are booked on other Emirates and Turkish Airlines flights.
Rome passengers flight overall delayed by 5 hours and not happy.
Boarding of passengers takes 3 hours. Emirates crew blames ground handling.

Delay of over 24 hours in reaching destination.

Nice honesty and customer service, Emirates.

[mkcol74]

2 hours into a flight from Athens to Dubai you diverted to Istanbul? But that’s the opposite direction (roughly).

[SimonS1]

I think when you draw the flightpath on a map it’s not that far off the line?

Sounds like EK all over though. When things go wrong it can be spectacular.

[DavidSmith2]

2 hours out of Athens the nearest could possibly have been Damascus (or Cairo)(, but probably not the best option. Presume Istanbul was chosen because of better facilities and/or because Emirates fly there so would be able to deal with consequences.

[FDOS_UK]

mkcol74 is right, the aircraft would be probably have been somewhere around Egypt/Red Sea/Sinai after two hours flight form Athens. Even if it had gone on an initial northeasterly track, it ATH-IST is only 330 miles, so it would have been well beyond.

[mkcol74]

ATH-DXB http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=ATH-DXB&MS=wls&DU=mi

[superchris]

As I often say, Emirates are fine if all is going well, but Lord help you if you need any support or something goes wrong. They operate an incredibly ‘linear’ customer service script with staff not empowered to do anything other than follow script.

If I was on this flight, and not platinum or travelling in First, my expectations of Emirates here would be a night sleeping on the floor, and anything better would be a pleasant surprise.

[FDOS_UK]

superchris – 08/06/2016 09:28 BST

+1

[nibbler]

@mkol74 geopolitics suggests they don’t want to overfly Israel and were trying to avoid overflying Syria/ Northern Iraq?

[mkcol74]

@nibbler Spot on! Hadn’t crossed my mind.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/ek106/#9f315a3

[SimonS1]

There you go. So Istanbul wasn’t such a bad shout after all.

I would imagine there was some consultation with flight ops over the rendezvous with the Rome flight and a need to burn off fuel before landing so it all stacks up.

[LuganoPirate]

Never mind anything else, if an engine failed I’d just want to get on the ground ASAP in case the other one failed!!!

Sounds a horrifying experience overall Clearfly. I presume they allow you to rebook other connecting flights (or the return) free of charge?

[FDOS_UK]

SimonS1 – 08/06/2016 12:57 BST

You wrote “I think when you draw the flightpath on a map it’s not that far off the line?” You were wrong, it wasn’t a question of whether the decision was good or not.

LuganoPirate – 08/06/2016 15:06 BST

I’d feel the same way, too and I have had an engine fail when flying myself – quite disturbing (fortunately, there were two and we were still on the ground – had just started the take off roll).

When an engine fails on an aircraft, there will be a series of rules and SOPs to follow, based on the reliability of modern engines and that will guide the divert – but me, I’d put it on the nearest suitable runway – that streak of yellow down my back has always served me well 😉

[SimonS1]

Oh dear FDOS. Bit touchy this afternoon?

When you look at the link above the flightpath followed almost every day is not so far from Istanbul. Certainly a lot closer than Egypt, Sinai or the Red Sea. But hey, feel free to pretend you are right if you like 😉

12 hours in from the OP I’m disappointed you haven’t managed a conspiracy theory yet, SCCM flying the plane due to unclear chain of command, BA hogging all the airways etc etc.

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