Coffee Spill Diverts United Airlines Flight, Triggers Hijacking Alert
January 6th, 2011 - 1:33 am ICT by Angela Kaye MasonJan 5 (THAINDIAN NEWS) A cup of coffee belonging to a pilot on board a United Airlines flight, which was headed to Frankfurt, Germany from Chicago, Illinois, spilled over, causing the plane to have to make an unscheduled stop in Canada. According to a report from the ‘Associated Press’, the coffee spill causes several distress signals to be triggered, which included the signal for a hijacking or unlawful interference.
A report from ‘Transport Canada’ stated that the United Airlines Flight 940 was diverted to the airport in Toronto, Canada late on Monday, and managed to land safely at the Pearson International Airport there. The defense department of Canada was notified, but along with the aide of the United dispatch, they found the cause to be a communication issue, and not a real hijacking. The flight crew confirmed this.
The FAA said that the pilot of the aircraft “had inadvertently squawked a 7500 code after spilling coffee on the aircraft’s radio equipment, which interfered with the communications equipment. The flight crew had advised that they had communication problems and subsequently reported that they had some navigation problems as well and from there the pilot in the command diverted the flight onto Toronto.”
Although the pilot was in contact with the tower throughout the occurrence, he opted to go ahead and divert the plane rather than make the long trip while having issues with communication. There were 241 passengers and 14 crew on board the Boeing 777, which were flown back to Chicago via another plane, and then put into hotels buy the airline before flying on to Germany the next day.
- Coffee spill diverts United Airlines flight - Jan 06, 2011
- Fighter jets intercept two small planes in Obama's airspace - Aug 07, 2012
- JetBlue captain goes berserk on flight, subdued by passengers - Mar 29, 2012
- Plane hijacking attempt foiled in China - Jun 29, 2012
- Spanish plane hijacking report denied - Aug 30, 2012
- U.S. FAA launches website for pilots and public about laser incidents - Oct 28, 2011
- Small passenger plane crashes in eastern Canada, killing 4 - Jan 12, 2012
- Avoid American airlines, Indians told - Dec 16, 2011
- Fighter jet intercepts small plane near Camp David - Sep 04, 2011
- Pakistani held for aircraft hijack threat - Apr 27, 2012
- Turkish Airlines plane skids; Mumbai airport shut till Saturday - Sep 03, 2011
- Southwest Airlines grounds dozens of planes after in-flight fuselage rupture - Apr 02, 2011
- Continental Airline says that sick pilots resulted in flight cancellations - Jul 27, 2011
- U.S. FAA issues emergency directive for extra inspections of several Boeing 737 models - Apr 05, 2011
- Pakistani plane diverted as man suffers stroke - Jun 12, 2011
Tags: boeing 777, chicago illinois, communication issue, communication problems, communications equipment, cup of coffee, department of canada, distress signals, flight crew, frankfurt germany, long trip, navigation problems, pearson international airport, radio equipment, spill, toronto canada, transport canada, united airlines, united airlines flight, unlawful interference