Long-haul airline flight Lufthansa is facing a gigantic schedule disruption due to the need to provide medical assistance to one of its passengers. This usual, in general case, led to not one, but two transplants at once.
Lufthansa Flight LH511 was a scheduled non-stop flight between Buenos Aires International Airport and Frankfurt. The departure time of the flight is 16:45, the duration of the flight is about 12–13 hours.
June 27, the Boeing 747–8 took off from Buenos Aires, but was forced to turn around and head to Natal airport in Brazil, as one of the passengers required emergency medical care. The plane deviated from its usual trajectory nearly five hours after takeoff, shortly after crossing the Equator.
After an unscheduled stop in Natal, the Boeing again flew to Europe, but never reached Germany. The pilots were forced to redirect the aircraft to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport as the crew ran out of hours and needed to change.
In recent months, Lufthansa has experienced frequent disruptions to its 747 flight schedules. technical malfunction. In accordance with the priority landing rules, the crew declared an emergency on board.
In October 2022, a Lufthansa Boeing 747 flying between Frankfurt and Bangalore was forced to make an unscheduled landing in Turkey due to a medical emergency. The plane was stuck at the airport for more than 24 hours before it could fly to its destination. The airline cited “medical use of oxygen tanks” as the main reason for this delay, after which they had to be replaced.
Airlines are trying to tighten their schedules as much as possible in order to maximize the monetization of aircraft operation. Delays or diversions on long-haul flights are especially fraught as there is always the possibility that the crew will run out of hours before they are legally able to fly the aircraft.
An example of this happened recently in India when an Air India from London to Delhi was forced to land in Jaipur due to bad weather. The pilots refused to continue flying to Delhi, which was the subject of intense media and public scrutiny, but Air India explained that the cockpit crew was subject to FDTL – Flight Time Restrictions that prevented pilots from flying.
Airlines operate in accordance with certain rules, according to which the crew cannot fly the aircraft for more than a certain time to ensure the safety of all on board.