Where have you been diverted?

[Justin L]

This article on a Cathay Pacific flight from AMS-HKG being diverted to Kazakhstan got me wondering on what interesting destinations members of this board have been diverted to for whatever reason.

I have only been diverted once due to weather. A Japanese domestic ANA flight I was on from Tokyo-Haneda en route to Hakodate several years ago was divereted to Sapporo-Chitose due to heavy snow.

(I did experience my first plane de-icing yesterday from SLC-LAS though. I was in a window seat over the wing and watched the whole thing - quite interesting!)

What diversion experiences have others had?

[Jack B]

Although not that odd, Tamworth on a Qantas 737 was somewhat unusual to me!

[Torin Wilson]

When I flew from Frankfurt Hahn to Budapest on Wizzair we were just starting to divert to Bratislava, Slovakia. The runway lights at Budapest failed, and we circled Budapest for 20 minutes, then started to divert. Just as we starting climbing again the runway lights came back on.

Not quite a divert, but the closest I've had!

[Daniel M]

MEL-PER, got diverted to Kalgoorlie due fog in PER. Refuelled then were on our way again.

Was in VH-TJB, the QF 737 that was painted in Solomons colours I think?

[Brian Wilkes]

MEL-LST divert to HBA due fog after 3 go-arounds at LST!

[Guy W]

AKL-ZQN on NZ back in 2003. We circled around Wanaka for 30 mins before diverted to CHC. The check in at ZQN told me a week later that the diversion was caused by a cracked windscreen and NZ doesn't have the people or parts to fix it in ZQN.

[Peter H.]

Qantas Syd-Lax overflew LAX to land in LAS to take on fuel so we could land in LAX

Understand. Neither do I. It was apparently a bit wet in LAX at time of overfly

[Andrew P]

in all my flights over 30 years, have never been diverted, have had aborted takeoff and landings etc even a few stopped engines

[Robert S]

Not really a diversion and if we are going to count it, I think I'm in the running for most boring diversion ever.

Was coming back from Europe on Lufthansa in the 80s, routing was FRA-AUH-KUL-MEL-SYD. The Melbourne ATC were threatening a strike so they decided to operate direct from KUL-SYD, but then the pilots were concerned about possible additional hold delays, so wanted more fuel.

It was during Ramadan and it was approaching sunset... apparently there was some issue that they couldn't refuel with pax aboard unless there was a rep from the fire service present, but they refused to come out - plus in any case by the time we were deboarded it was time for dinner and apparently the refuellers weren't prepared to refuel the aircraft then anyway.

They ended up taking us all off to a function room upstairs in the airport where unlimited sandwiches and post-mix softdrinks were laid on until we eventually re-boarded the aircraft and came straight to SYD, arriving around the original intended arrival time.

MEL pax were met at the bottom of the aircraft steps (we parked at the end of the piers and had no aerobridge) and bussed over to the domestic terminal... not quite sure what arrangement they had in place for customs and immigration - was pretty young at the time and totally exhausted.

[Simon C]

Ansett B767-200 SYD-BNE diverted to the Gold Coast due storms in Brisbane. After an hour on the ground the 767-200 departed to Brisbane which was a very short hop.