Atlas B744F in Alice Springs

[Geoff G]

Heard "Giant 5446" this morning inbound to Alice Springs before the tower was open getting a rundown of local procedures from Melbourne Center whilst I was heading to work.... After I got to work I checked FR24 to see what was going on, and saw that this is one of Atlas' B744F - a very unusual visitor to the Alice.

What is even weirder is his flightpath - Cairns, Overhead Alice, then almost to Perth before he turned around and came back to Alice. Anyone have any idea what the go is? At first I thought perhaps Perth was closed, but given he is still sitting on the apron here at 17:30 local I'm not sure that was the reason. Why divert back to Alice when he was much closer to Perth ??? Gotta be something going on here.....

[Paul F]

Originally Posted by Geoff G

Heard "Giant 5446" this morning inbound to Alice Springs before the tower was open getting a rundown of local procedures from Melbourne Center whilst I was heading to work.... After I got to work I checked FR24 to see what was going on, and saw that this is one of Atlas' B744F - a very unusual visitor to the Alice.

What is even weirder is his flightpath - Cairns, Overhead Alice, then almost to Perth before he turned around and came back to Alice. Anyone have any idea what the go is? At first I thought perhaps Perth was closed, but given he is still sitting on the apron here at 17:30 local I'm not sure that was the reason. Why divert back to Alice when he was much closer to Perth ??? Gotta be something going on here.....

I believe there was fog in Perth.

[Andrew Coggan]

It originally diverted enroute HNL-PER to CNS late last night.

[Max C]

Then delayed due to crew hours no doubt.

[Geoff G]

That makes sense - didn't think about crew hours.
He's up again now, just crossed the WA border heading for Perth.

[JamesL]

Once they landed in ASP, they rented a small aircraft and went to Uluru!

[Jayden Laing]

On the company credit card of course! Haha

[Ian Garton]

Originally Posted by JamesL

Once they landed in ASP, they rented a small aircraft and went to Uluru!

I guess the hire must have come with a pilot, unless the crew hours expiration doesn't matter with GA flying?