American B772 near Buenos Aires on Dec 25th 2016, ran out of air sick bags, lightning strike
Last Update: December 27, 2016 / 00:12:06 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Dec 25, 2016
Classification
Incident
Cause
Lightning strike
Airline
American Airlines
Flight number
AA-997
Departure
Dallas Ft. Worth, United States
Destination
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Aircraft Registration
N780AN
Aircraft Type
Boeing 777-200
ICAO Type Designator
B772
Airport ICAO Code
SAEZ
A passenger reported the captain announced shortly after the aircraft had left cruise level, that there were storms and bad weather in the Buenos Aires and instructed cabin crew to prepare the cabin for landing right away and take their seats. A short time later turbulence kicked in, the worst the passenger had ever experienced (the passenger believes the turbulence could be categorized as severe), many passengers (estimated about half of the passengers) vomitted, the aircraft ran out of airsick bags while the aircraft continued the descent flying zig-zag around weather, entered a hold, then continued the approach and was configured for landing. The ground became briefly visible, the turbulence reduced, the engines worked less hard spooling up and down, but then the aircraft went around and climbed back into bad turbulence. While climbing out there was a large orange flash and a bang. A while later the captain announced they were diverting to Montevideo, the aircraft tracked southeast along the coastline of Argentina first, shortly after the aircraft turned northeast the turbulence subsided and the aircraft commenced a landing without further incident in Montevideo. The aircraft taxied to a remote apron, the captain announced they would carry on to Buenos Aires as soon as the weather improved there. Some time later the captain announced, that the aircraft was unable to continue the flight due to a technical problem, the passengers were asked to disembark, they would be taken to hotels. To avoid accidents with the wet stairs, the captain continued, they would be towed to the gate first, but the storm increased and lightning neared to aerodrome making a tow impossible. About an hour later the lightning subsided, other aircraft able to carry on to Buenos Aires received priority, the passengers finally disembarked about 4.5 hours after scheduled arrival in Ezeiza, passed through immigration and were taken to hotels.
The occurrence aircraft departed Montevideo 22.5 hours after landing and reached Buenos Aires with a delay of 24 hours.
Metars:
SAEZ 251400Z 090V110 8000 -RA OVC100 20/19 Q1003 RETS
SAEZ 251335Z 10009KT 5000 -TSRA SCT039 FEW050CB OVC060 19/18 Q1004
SAEZ 251300Z 17008KT 130V200 -TSRA SCT035 FEW050CB OVC050 19/18 Q1004
SAEZ 251230Z 18013G24KT 2000 -TSRA BKN006 BKN015 FEW050CB 19/18 Q1004
SAEZ 251200Z 18008KT 2000 TSRA BKN005 OVC035 FEW045CB 19/19 Q1004
SAEZ 251118Z 17005KT 110V240 1000 R11/1000 RMID/0900 R29/0800 TSRA BKN003 OVC018 FEW040CB 21/20 Q1003
SAEZ 251100Z 10011KT 1500 TSRA BKN022 FEW050CB OVC070 22/21 Q1001
SAEZ 251020Z 07013KT 3000 TSRA BKN047 FEW050CB OVC080 23/20 Q1002
SAEZ 251000Z 07013KT 0800 TSRA FEW050CB BKN080 OVC200 23/20 Q1002
SAEZ 250900Z 07011KT 8000 NSC 23/20 Q1003 RETSRA
Aircraft Registration Data
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Dec 25, 2016
Classification
Incident
Cause
Lightning strike
Airline
American Airlines
Flight number
AA-997
Departure
Dallas Ft. Worth, United States
Destination
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Aircraft Registration
N780AN
Aircraft Type
Boeing 777-200
ICAO Type Designator
B772
Airport ICAO Code
SAEZ
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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