UA940 from Chicago to Frankfurt diverted into Toronto on Monday…the reason, apparently the pilot spilt his coffee over the communications equipment!
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/01/05/canada.flight.diverted/index.html
By: J Boyle - 9th January 2011 at 19:10
Hope no one aboard saw the film Fate is the Hunter on TCM last week!:eek:
By: Arabella-Cox - 9th January 2011 at 14:34
I knocked a cup of coffee into my flight bag once (in flight). All my Jepp charts were ruined and the bag smelled of mocca java forever after.
By: trolleydolly - 9th January 2011 at 12:32
At least when I spilt scalding hot coffee,it was only in the co-pilots lap.
By: Ship 741 - 6th January 2011 at 17:50
Reminds me of the movie “Fate is the hunter,” I wonder if the Captain of the UAL flight ever saw that (or read the book).
By: PMN - 6th January 2011 at 12:48
Ah fair enough, Symon. Apologies for the misunderstanding! 🙂
By: symon - 6th January 2011 at 12:43
I was only fooling around Paul! 🙂 Was just thinking along the lines of often current day thinking were one mishap creates an absolute avalanche and brings in a ridiculous rule.
Still, at least it wasn’t his bourbon and coke he spilled on the console :p
By: Arabella-Cox - 6th January 2011 at 06:29
This seems quite an easy thing to do. Maybe the communications panels can be redesigned to make them liquid-proof. After all, it is reasonable that a pilot might want a coffee en route and so, spillages are bound to occur on occasions. It seems ridiculous that one could force an aircraft to divert.
That said, I knew of a person who spilt coffee while driving a then-new Citroen XM, once. The coffee went into the dashboard, wrecked all the fragile French electronics and caused £1500 of non-warrantied damage.
Ouch.
By: atr42 - 5th January 2011 at 22:46
Always used to amaze me. Crew down the back were supposed to check regularly on those upfront and keep them supplied with drinks under sentance of death if you spilt it on the comms panel. In theory the drink should be passed round the outside of the seat or across the comms panel in an ice bucket or something to prevent spillages. Neither exactly practical.
Yet never was a proper container supplied for putting FD drinks in. Even if it was a babies drinks beaker it would be better!
By: PMN - 5th January 2011 at 22:25
Come on, Symon, have you never made a silly mistake in your life? It’s not like this guy purposely spilled his drink everywhere!
By: symon - 5th January 2011 at 21:56
Next thing the airline will ban beverages in the office up the front – there’s always someone that ruins it for the rest :rolleyes:
By: Grey Area - 5th January 2011 at 21:32
That’s one expensive cup of coffee, right enough!
By: Bmused55 - 5th January 2011 at 21:27
Someone is going to see deductions in his wage packet for the forseeable
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January 5, 2011 at 9:03 pm