dansound

Well that was an experience I’m not keen on repeating!

Came in to land LHR, seemed fine to start with, then while we were still traveling at some pace on the runway, rapidly changed directions to leave the runway (felt like a handbrake turn)
plane then “bouncing” like a car being driven by a learner not use to the peddles.

flowed very swiftly by that arrival of what I can only assume was every fire engine, police car, ambulance, and anything else with a flashing light within a mile radius.

announcement by captain that the steering had stopped working.

followed by an eternity of waiting for a tug to drag us to somewhere and an engineer to check it over.
got taken to an unfamiliar corner of the airport and loaded on to busses.

nice to walk away from that…

Shame about the missed connection and a night in a crap hotel and waiting 45’min for the bus to hotel (asked about Sofitel, and despite it being £160 online, said they couldn’t do it, and if I booked myself they would not refund)

bisonrav

They would have refunded. It's better not to ask.

As for the rest, I guess it could easily have been worse, and good that it was just a delay rather than anything more serious.

msm2000uk

Well done to the flight crew!

As for the rest, BA would've refunded the hotel.

M

corporate-wage-slave

That isn't correct and I hope you weren't using a Hoppa service. But if this happens again, look at this thread then sort yourself out on your terms.

Disruption Assistance thread - signposts and what you need to know

dansound

Yes, was a Hoppa bus

I knew the £200 hotel part, but was very firmly ‘told’ I had to take the option they were giving and I’d be going solo if I done anything else. I guess I’ve learnt my lesson.

crew on the plane were great, had a decent chat with the inflight manager who was quite open that she was more than a little surprised with events and it was the first time she had experienced anything like it.

oh well, it’s a nice comfort to be going to sleep tonight after that…events like that certainly make you think about what ifs

worldtrav

Every landing you walk away from is a good landing.

Shame you used the Hotel Hoppa, quite simply it's extortion, the public buses are more frequent and cost way less.

Glad everyone is OK.

ACARS

Crikey, sounds all rather sudden. Guess that’s why it is important to ready for any eventuality on take off or landing. Glad it all turned out well and as it sounds like a technical issue I guess you will also be eligible if you decided to put in a claim. From reading other posts on here and seeing various photos taken of other aircraft from lounges etc, I guess that is just a standard reflex to send all the blue lights when an aircraft has a problem.

Shame the staff directed you to that hotel, guess they booked at lowest cost or whatever they already had in holding and decided it was that or bust. But the main thing of course is that everyone is ok. I guess you’d be refunded a taxi/uber tomorrow if you didn’t want to take the hoppa from hell. Last time I was in a position that I had to take one the driver reminded me of MAN security staff, barking at passengers left, right and centre.

Waterhorse

After an event like this, the only thing that happens quickly is the arrival of the fire engines, every thing else takes a huge amount of time.

mnhusker

And a landing you can use the plane again is a GREAT landing

Oldie but a goodie.......

jmd

I was on the aircraft immediately behind you (BA491 from GIB) and you gave us a go around on finals! Captain said that the aircraft in front had lost nose wheel steering. It was 2 out of 2 for the crew as they also had a go around on approach to GIB…

crazy8534

There is an interesting video of the event (go to 6mins 35secs in), followed by jmd's go-around.
I know how disappointed the board will be that we are lacking any commentary from Jerry "Woa, Woa, Woa fella, BOSH...."

linz36

Looks like the next 5 flights all did standard go arounds, I presume that is safer than aborting landing earlier? After that I guess planes were send to holding patterns.

The landing looks just fine on the video, and it appears to leave the runway too without issue, but then the camera swings back to incoming planes and no fire engines are ever seen. Poor directing!

LHRATCO

When faced with a potential multiple go around (missed approach) scenario, it's quite often prudent to allow the aircraft already established on the approach to continue down towards the runway, then conduct the missed approach at 1-2 miles as this builds in predictability and separation when otherwise it can get a little bit chaotic.

When all those aircraft will have to circle back to make another approach to either the same runway, or the other one, all of them loosely flying the same track distance keeps the extended sequence going. If the 2nd, or 3rd turned towards the north earlier you create a conflict point as they would turn inside the aircraft ahead, and cause a bit of a problem.

As referenced further up the thread, there is a routine reaction to a non-standard event such as this that does involve an attendance of the emergency services. Quite often that may/will feel over the top. I think we'd all prefer that to the one event where an under-attendance resulted in an unnecessary delay or worse.

kdm97

It's AI, so I assume it's tracked to the movement or the direction of the incoming flights.

GoNorth

From the second or two before the camera swings and the puffs of rubber from the left and then right tyres credit to the crew in what looks like using the brakes to steer the aircraft onto the turnoff. Without the jab on the left brake one wheel may well have gone into the grass which could have the potential to make it a whole bigger issue.