The passengers of the Flybondi flight FBZ5900 that departed from Ezeiza bound for Rio de Janeiro expressed their discomfort at the situation they had to live on top of the aircraft. It is that the unit suffered a technical malfunction and the pilots in charge of the crew were forced to change the route and fly over the sky of La Plata to burn fuel and reach the maximum weight to return to the Ministro Pistarini International Airport.
“In half an hour he leaves back, he landed and there was a lot of tension. It hit a bit when landing, the firefighters were waiting with their mobile phones on,” said one of the passengers who contacted 0221.com.ar to report what was happening.
Others, meanwhile, used their social networks to recount what they experienced to tell what they lived on top of the plane. “Here on his plane after circling La Plata for 3 hours, without knowing what happened, or when we are going to return. If he had known, he wouldn’t ask me for the day at work”, commented a young man.
“3 hours ago above silver, everything was very nice but I wanted to go to Rio…”, was another of the posts that could be read in the comments on Flybondi’s Twitter.
Meanwhile, another user of the bird’s social network pointed against the company due to the lack of responses. Can someone from @flybondioficial give an answer? What was the reason? The flight in Rio de Janeiro was delayed for 3 hours but no one confirms whether the plane has already left Ezeiza or not, ”he posted.
As reported 0221.com.ar, Neighbors from different parts of La Plata warned this morning that a plane was flying over the sky at a very low altitude. Despite the concern that this situation aroused, the specialists explained that it is a protocol that is implemented every time a fault is detected in the aircraft and the pilot must “burn fuel” to reach a maximum landing weight.
As can be seen on the specialized site flightradarthe flight FBZ5900 of Flybondi Ezeiza-Rio de Janeiro made several turns over the sky of La Plata for about two hours and then returned to the Ministro Pistarini International Airport. “It is a flight that left Ezeiza bound for Rio de Janeiro, undoubtedly it must have had some minor problem because otherwise it would have already landed. In those cases, the Ezeiza controller assigns you a place where you can wait and spend fuel,” he told 0221.com.ar Danielan airplane pilot who was following the minute by minute route of the Boeing 737 LV-KEG.
In this sense, he explained that in these cases a “circuit called hippodrome” and clarified that it is something totally normal. “The same thing happened the other time with the Aerolíneas Argentinas flight. Perhaps one who is following the radar wonders: ‘Why does he do it for so long?’ It has been going around for more than two hours but it is normal”, he indicated.
In turn, the pilot explained that it is necessary to do this maneuver because the plane has two weights: one for takeoff and one for landing. “When the planes leave Spain or Rio de Janeiro, they leave with passengers and all the luggage. It is not the same when the plane leaves the ground than when it lands. When it lands it is an impact against the ground, obviously it is minor, somewhat controlled but it is still an impact. So, for safety, each plane has a maximum weight with which it can land safely, without damaging the plane and without causing an accident. For that, you have to spend fuel, you have no other choice.”, he stressed, while adding that “this maximum weight with which you can land is stipulated by manual”.
He also pointed out that one of the ways to spend fuel is to fly at a low altitude or go to a stipulated place in the Rio de la Plata where it is disposed of without passing through the turbines, an option that is very harmful to the environment. “It’s a minor glitch whereby he waits for a designated spot. It happened that in the last two opportunities they did it on La Plata. They have also waited like Lobos and other places in the Province but one does not find out because it is precisely elsewhere ”, she emphasized.
Finally, Daniel insisted that it is a completely normal situation and perhaps for “those who are not on the subject” it may mean a degree of concern. “Because of the wind, the noise is not heard as much as it happened with the airline flight, which was a quiet night and early morning. At the moment there was no event that indicates that it is an emergency. In case of an emergency, the plane would have landed immediately“, hill.
