Just wondering if anyone here was on the infamous VS016 flight on the 8.50 flight on 3/11/11? WOW what a journey. If there is anyone here who was on it are you planning to take it any further? What was your experience like?
Just to fill everyone else in the flight was 4 hours into the journey just going over the Atlantic (kids asleep) when the captain came on saying "I'm sure some of you have noticed a lot of activity from cabin crew, but we seem to have a problem with the air conditioning system and feel it's too dangerous to continue going over the Atlantic, so we are going to have to turn round and head to Boston". As u can imagine there was even more activity by the cabin crew as they had to deal with all the passengers with fear of flying, plus everyone else who starting to get nervous and wanted info. I have to say I was ok until the captain came on later saying "some people have reported a weird smell but please don't be alarmed". Also when we dropped 10,000 feet in 1 min - something to do with dumping fuel and the jet stream we were in. That's when your imagination can start going into overdrive, but we realised that if it really was dangerous, they would have come down in Halifax which we went over, but instead they said we could make it to Boston which was the nearest airport where Virgin had a base which meant ground crew and virgin engineers.
I forget what time we landed (safely - it's amazing how u start listening to all the bumps and wirring in that situation) but I think it was about 1am. We were were told originally it would be about 1.5 hours approx on the Tarmac, but once we were down and the engineer was on board, that we would all disembark and our return time wouldn't be till 11.40pm (slight confusion there as the head cabin crew chap actually originally said pm TOMORROW, but apparently they were all confused as to what day it was and meant the day we were already in - Fri).
Very long story short we were put up in hotels (but our hotel load didn't get to our rooms till 7am) and following a catalogue of disasters we eventually landed 10am sat at gatwick. I don't think I have ever been that tired in my life - I generally just doze on night flights, so effectively I had 4 hours sleep from thur am to sat pm, combined with the stress of flying with 2 toddlers and boston's ground crews **** ups.
Eventually the captain told us there was a small electrical fire and an arcing (sp?) between the crews rest area and a reading lamp, so it could have been bad. I have to say the flight cabin crew were fantastic and we had the same team (and plane!) for the final journey home. To be fair to the Virgin Boston ground crew, it was a logistical nightmare for them - it was the middle of the night so skeleton staff were called in, and they only get aircraft no bigger then 200 odd, not the 453 from ours. Other upside was we had a day in Boston which I had always wanted to see. It was beautiful and a lot of us took the hop on/off tours around.
Just to fill everyone else in the flight was 4 hours into the journey just going over the Atlantic (kids asleep) when the captain came on saying "I'm sure some of you have noticed a lot of activity from cabin crew, but we seem to have a problem with the air conditioning system and feel it's too dangerous to continue going over the Atlantic, so we are going to have to turn round and head to Boston". As u can imagine there was even more activity by the cabin crew as they had to deal with all the passengers with fear of flying, plus everyone else who starting to get nervous and wanted info. I have to say I was ok until the captain came on later saying "some people have reported a weird smell but please don't be alarmed". Also when we dropped 10,000 feet in 1 min - something to do with dumping fuel and the jet stream we were in. That's when your imagination can start going into overdrive, but we realised that if it really was dangerous, they would have come down in Halifax which we went over, but instead they said we could make it to Boston which was the nearest airport where Virgin had a base which meant ground crew and virgin engineers.
I forget what time we landed (safely - it's amazing how u start listening to all the bumps and wirring in that situation) but I think it was about 1am. We were were told originally it would be about 1.5 hours approx on the Tarmac, but once we were down and the engineer was on board, that we would all disembark and our return time wouldn't be till 11.40pm (slight confusion there as the head cabin crew chap actually originally said pm TOMORROW, but apparently they were all confused as to what day it was and meant the day we were already in - Fri).
Very long story short we were put up in hotels (but our hotel load didn't get to our rooms till 7am) and following a catalogue of disasters we eventually landed 10am sat at gatwick. I don't think I have ever been that tired in my life - I generally just doze on night flights, so effectively I had 4 hours sleep from thur am to sat pm, combined with the stress of flying with 2 toddlers and boston's ground crews **** ups.
Eventually the captain told us there was a small electrical fire and an arcing (sp?) between the crews rest area and a reading lamp, so it could have been bad. I have to say the flight cabin crew were fantastic and we had the same team (and plane!) for the final journey home. To be fair to the Virgin Boston ground crew, it was a logistical nightmare for them - it was the middle of the night so skeleton staff were called in, and they only get aircraft no bigger then 200 odd, not the 453 from ours. Other upside was we had a day in Boston which I had always wanted to see. It was beautiful and a lot of us took the hop on/off tours around.
What an ordeal 
You must have been wishing they had discovered a problem a little sooner than 4 hours across the Atlantic! I think sleep is in order for you - big time! 
Oh, and definitely a stiff drink!!!
. Got to stay overnight and got home a day late. I was a nervous flyer before that since then no nerves at all so in a way it was a good thing for me well in the end 
