Squawk Ident
As a pilot, have you ever had to deviate to an alternate airport? Was it due to an urgent matter? Tell us your story and how you overcame the situation.
A few years ago, our crew had departed from LBG (le Bourget, Paris, France) to GRU (Guarulhos, São Paulo SP, Brazil). After 11 hours of flight during our descent to initiate an approach, the airport closed for Category I (CAT I) approaches due to weather. We decided to divert to our alternate airport and landed safely as previously planned.
Santos Walter
ATP/CFII/Helo. Global 6000
Ops Mgr
Dedalus
Sorocaba SP, Brazil
Returning home from Spain, having departed KEF (Keflavík, Iceland) following a tech stop, and destined for another tech stop at YYR (Goose Bay NL, Canada), we had to deviate to YYT (St John’s NL, Canada), our alternate, due to an upcoming frontal weather system. As we approached YYT, it went down below ILS minimums, and we had to divert once more to YZV (Sept-Îles QC, Canada) while rapidly running out of fuel and ideas in the morning hours after a long flight. Fortunately, there is a runway at the end of every ILS. YZV went down as we landed.
James Van Blarcum
ATP/CFII. Hawker 800XP
Captain
Collins & Aikman
Troy MI
I’ve diverted to an alternate airport many times in my 45 years as a professional pilot. I’ve also had medical emergencies but did not go to an alternate for those. First of all, proper fuel, route and weather planning are key. All of my diversions were weather-related, mostly to thunderstorms. Once I could see that the storm was not going to cooperate, I would make the decision to divert early to my alternate, refuel, and get back in line to take off to my original destination – as long as I could still do so and stay within crew duty limits.
Jeff Jones
ATP. King Air 350i
Chief Pilot
Texas Pacific Land
Dallas TX
Have had a few deviations due to weather. I always make sure I have a good alternate listed and plenty of fuel to give me options. If an airport has a single runway, it’s always possible it may close. So having an alternate in mind and extra fuel on board is prudent, even if it’s
not required.
Brent Keyes
ATP. Gulfstream G550
Dir of Aviation
Moorland Promontory
Royal Palm Beach FL
Weather and technical problems have caused me to experience a couple of deviations. The weather deviation was when my arrival airport was in IMC and unable to accept arrivals. I was holding till close to diversion fuel, diverted to my alternate, and returned when the weather improved. The technical diversion took place when my aircraft had a loss of hydraulics while airborne. Basically, I diverted to an airport with a long runway to accommodate a long landing run in the event of brake loss too. So far, all my deviations have been uneventful after landing.
Tong Bee Ngak
ATP. Citation Sovereign, Learjet 60 & Gulfstream G150
Captain
Seletar Jet Charter
Singapore
On the way from SJC (San Jose CA) to AGS (Augusta GA), we noticed fluctuating oil pressure on our number 2 engine. We were flying a Falcon 2000 at FL410. We had just passed DEN (Intl, Denver CO), so we advised ATC of our situation and requested to deviate to DEN. During descent, we monitored the number 2 engine, and when we were at a comfortable distance from the airport we performed a precautionary shutdown and secured the engine. Once on the ground, we discovered that the problem was the result of a loose oil cap. A better performed preflight would have prevented such an event.
Roi Nieto
ATP. Falcon 2000
Captain
Clay Lacy Aviation
Temecula CA
Yes, I have. It was in western Alaska, while returning empty from a charter OME (Nome AK)– BET (Bethel AK) in a Cessna 402C. I experienced fluctuating manifold pressure on the left engine, then saw oil streaming from the left engine cowling louvers, so I performed an inflight engine shutdown. The aircraft would not maintain altitude without over-temping the right engine, so I began a slow descent, bringing temps back into the green. Destination OME was right at minimums in fog. I diverted to UNK (Unalakleet AK), which was VFR and also had a company maintenance base. The cause of the problem was a failed turbo bearing and subsequent interference on the compressor wheel against the housing, causing vibrations and breakage of the turbo oil line. More recently, I flew from TEB (Teterboro NJ) to LTN (Luton, London, England) in a Global 5000 for a trip recovery. Arriving over LTN just after 7:00 am, visibility was well below minimums in a fog, so we entered a hold to the north, hoping that the forecast was accurate and that the fog would burn off soon. Our alternate was NCL (Newcastle, England), but in the hold we were flying over CBG (Cambridge, England), which was in the clear. After some discussion with the Cambridge tower regarding diverting, we got the approval and proceeded to NCL to wait out the fog at LTN. After getting refueled and serviced, LTN had cleared up and we flew the short hop there to a waiting crew.
Marc Gardner
ATP. Global 7500
PIC
NetJets Aviation
Bend OR
Absolutely. Weather went zero/zero at our primary and alternate airports. Thank goodness for Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) and SiriusXM.
John Pulis
ATP. King Air 200
Chief Pilot &
Flight Dept Mgr
Airtime
Willis TX
Once I was flying from Florida to Texas with a student and his mother in a new Daher TBM 850. A situation arose when his mother needed a bathroom urgently, so we diverted to MOB (Mobile AL). It was good training for my student to have to do a diversion.
Melvin Rushton
ATP/CFII. TBM 940
Managing Partner
Tango Mike Jets
Vancouver BC, Canada
Certainly. I had a landing gear failure in a King Air 200 on a night instrument approach to a small airport after hours. I diverted to an airport with emergency equipment while I attempted to extend the gear manually. Since the gear would still not extend, I had to land gear-up. It was a good thing we diverted, because we had a small engine fire, which was extinguished by the fire department. There were no injuries. The problem was a mechanical gear actuator which had failed and frozen all the gear in the up position.
Bruce Rainwater
ATP/CFII. King Air 200
Pilot
Self-employed
Richmond TX
I was hired at KVIL Dallas radio station as their afternoon DJ. Readying to move from Oklahoma City to Dallas, I was flying home on weekends. Returning to ADS (Addison, Dallas TX) on a beautiful Sunday, I smiled when I filed my usual IFR flight plan. It seems funny to file an alternate when it’s clear and a million. All right, Dallas Love Field it is! Later, arriving to land southbound at ADS, the tower said, “You are number 5, straight in for Runway 16. Slow to approach speed.” On shorter final, working my way down the sequence, I remember tower saying, “We’ve just had a gear-up landing [on ADS’s lone Runway 16]. Contact Dallas Approach for vectors to Love Field.” Okay, now I get it!
Bill Gardner
ATP. Beechcraft 33 Debonair
Chief Pilot
Radio Paradise
Las Vegas NV
During my career, I’ve deviated for a number of reasons. Sometimes I’ve done it for weather – perhaps a fog bank rolling in and obscuring the field, or thunderstorms passing over the field. I’ve also deviated for airport closures due to incapacitated aircraft on the runway. It’s also occurred due to a passenger request, as plans can change on a long flight, and all of a sudden our destination needs to change. All of these deviations occurred on domestic flights. Fortunately, deviations on international flights have happened very rarely for me. The last one happened while returning from CSL (Cabo San Lucas, Mexico). We were trying to get into SDM (Brown, San Diego CA), but a combination of bad weather and GPS outage made us divert to SAN (Intl, San Diego CA). We were a little worried about how Customs would react, but that was the smoothest part of the trip. They took care of us pretty quickly with absolutely no hassle.
Ryan Johnson
ATP. Challenger 604
Captain
KMR Aviation
Modesto CA
Had to divert several times to my filed alternate airport due to weather that deteriorated below forecast. I’m not sure I’d call that a deviation, since it was on the filed flight plan. I’ve also had to divert due to runway closures. In both cases, the key is effective preflight planning, first for weather, plus planning for an alternate whenever I’m flying into or operating out of a single-runway location, and then by being proactive in making the decision in a timely fashion, and requesting assistance from ATC as required. This is very much like deciding to abort or eject – in other words, make the mental decision to be ready to divert before you fly.
Tom Van Kleef
Comm-Multi-Inst/CFII. King Air C90
Gen Mgr & Partner/NBAA
Certified Safety Mgr
Casper Air Service
Casper WY
After a long flight, meteorological conditions were lower than the minimums. We had sufficient contingency fuel to allow us to deviate. As usual, and in accordance with standard operating procedures, we had built an FMS flight plan not only for our destination but also for an alternate airport. Before reaching our destination, we also copied the meteorological information of the alternate aerodrome. We decided to go alternate, which was a completely correct decision. That night we rested far from home, but the following day we returned to our home safely. Flights can be late, but should always be safe.
Serhat Burma
ATP. King Air 350i
Army Aviation Pilot
Turkish Land Forces
Isparta, Türkiye
In December 2019, our 2-leg cargo flight was PVG (Pudong, Shanghai, China)– FRU (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan)– IST (Istanbul, Turkey). We were flying with an augmented crew of 3 Airbus A330-200F pilots. During the PVG– FRU leg, we were receiving periodic ATIS information for our destination FRU and our NVI (Navoi, Uzbekistan) and ALA (Almaty, Kazakhstan) alternates. The weather was getting worse in FRU, where it was snowing. When we were cleared for descent, the situation seemed bad. As we passed 10,000 ft, braking action was reported to be poor. Company procedures do not allow us to land on runways in poor condition or with poor braking action. At that point, we decided to divert to ALA and contacted the Integrated Operations Control Center (IOCC) to inform them of the situation. We were rerouted to ALA, where it was also snowing but braking action was medium and thus appropriate for landing. After landing safely, refueling, and deicing, we departed for IST and landed without incident. However, it was the longest and most tiring duty time I’ve ever experienced.
Serkan Bilgin
ATP/Helo. Airbus A330-200F/A330/A320
First Officer
Turkish Airlines
Istanbul, Türkiye
In my Part 121 days, I experienced several deviations. On one occasion, I had to deviate to ANC (Anchorage AK) on a flight from NRT (Narita, Tokyo, Japan) to BFI (Boeing Field, Seattle WA) for a medical emergency. Being prepared and getting support from dispatch and/or company to have the new destination advised and ready makes a divert go smoother. With advance notice and preparation, we were able to turn in about 30 min.
Roy Schank
ATP. Hawker 800XP
Captain
Mayo Aviation
Englewood CO
We experienced an engine explosion and fire at altitude from DCU (Decatur AL) to FDY (Findlay OH), and made an emergency deviation to BNA (Intl, Nashville TN) with our number 1 engine secured. We were flying a King Air C90 with 5 pax and 2 crew on board. We all arrived safely.
Barrie Lineken
ATP. Hawker 800, Citation I & King Air C90
Former Senior Captain
Marathon Oil/Cooper Tire & Rubber
Findlay OH
Indeed, I had 3 airport diversions the same day! Missed on the RNAV 35 Z at VEL (Vernal UT), we diverted to HCR (Heber UT) to pick up a passenger who had driven there from VEL. We flew her to RYN (Ryan, Tucson AZ), and proceeded empty to VGT (North Las Vegas NV), which got closed due to a thunderstorm in Las Vegas. After holding for 20 min, we diverted into HND (Henderson NV). Rain was moderate. We picked up the children of the lady we’d dropped at RYN, and flew them to HCR so they could drive her car back to VEL. On the RVAV-A into HCR, weather was forecast to be 5000 and 5. Weather dropped to 1 1/2 miles visibility and 2000 ft overcast with heavy snow. We did a missed approach and went back out to ZANGY. We went to SLC Approach, vector to ILS 17, and the kids took an Uber to Heber.
Dave Simon
ATP. Phenom 100
Former Part 135 Chief Pilot
Keystone Aviation
Salt Lake City UT
There was one time when I couldn’t see the ground at my destination, so I had to go to my filed alternate airport. When people asked me, “Was it scary?” I told them, “No, that was my backup plan all along. I followed it, and I wasn’t scared because I’d planned for it!” Diverting to a planned alternate shouldn’t even be up for debate.
Jim Hanson
ATP. King Air 200
Owner
Albert Lea Airport
Albert Lea MN
Left central Florida on a routine corporate flight in the company Falcon 20 to ORD (O’Hare, Chicago IL). The entire flight was normal until we reached the Chicago area. Knowing that there was a major cold front approaching the area, we felt that we could land ahead of this approaching front. Our mistake was that we didn’t take into account that a number of other inbound flights had the same intentions, and, while we were being vectored for our landing sequence, we were given holding instructions at 15,000 ft over Lake Michigan, about 10 miles offshore, along with numerous other aircraft. We were basically abeam the field with a west inbound course, which allowed us a preview of the approaching front from the west. We were hoping to be vectored prior to the front reaching us, but that didn’t happen. With a lot of radio chatter for all flights concerned, ATC – which I’m sure was a little overloaded at the time – let all of us fend for ourselves, which all happened very suddenly when the cold front’s leading edge reached our position. The sky darkened and turbulence started to shake our plane. However, the big problem we noticed was the plane’s pressure instruments, which became unreliable. At the time, we were receiving extreme altitude indications of 3000–4000 ft reading with the VSI showing large displacement from our wings-level indications from our ADI. This weather upset lasted less than a minute, but during that time we had swapped assigned altitudes with other holding planes due to this unnerving event. ATC didn’t seem too upset with this, but then by request vectored us for an approach at MDW (Midway, Chicago IL), with no other issues.
David Garner
ATP. Falcon 20
Chief Pilot
Anchor Glass
Tampa FL
Never as a pilot, but during my time as a USAF C-130 navigator we would divert to an alternate airport due to weather – usually fog creating below-minimums issues, especially in northern and central Europe and in the Mediterranean.
David Remendowski
Operator. Lockheed C-130E
Hercules
Navigator
USAF
Medical Lake WA
I’ve had a fair number of deviations during the 40 years I’ve been flying professionally. Medical, weather, and disruptive passengers were the primary causes. All of them were resolved by communication inside and outside the aircraft. However, weather-related diversions are the tough ones. The duration of the weather event is not easy to forecast, and if it’s near the end of a long duty day it can be challenging. ATC can be helpful, along with dispatch, in getting the flight back on track. And communication among crew members is imperative in keeping a safe environment with all the changes going on. Any time you’re off the path, you incur more risk. The challenge is to keep focus and ensure that you and the crew adhere to SOPs. This minimizes risk and keeps the operation safe.
Mike Daley
ATP. CRJ 200
Captain
SkyWest Charter
Bellingham WA
Entering the CENAMER (Central America) FIR from the north, we were advised of fog forming over GUA (Guatemala City, Guatemala). By the time we were about to descend, the visibility had decreased to below our required minimums, so we decided to continue to SAL (San Salvador, El Salvador), where we landed, got some more fuel, and waited for about an hour. Our passengers remained on board sleeping. Fortunately, sunrise was very early. We waited for the weather to improve at GUA, and when our handler called to inform us that the fog was clearing, we flew the short sector to reach our destination uneventfully.
Alejandro Palacio
ATP. Embraer 145
PIC
ALS Kenya
Aguascalientes, México
Once we had a flight from IST (Istanbul, Türkiye) to GYD (Baku, Azerbaijan). The weather at GYD was so bad that could not even commence an approach. Before we reached the final approach fix (FAF), the “windshear ahead” alert was triggered. We decided to cancel our approach, and received a windshear warning several seconds after the alert. We performed the windshear maneuver and decided to divert to TZX (Trabzon, Türkiye). We landed at TZX, and found out that an Airbus A321 had also diverted about 20 min before us. Due to the severe weather conditions at GYD, some of our passengers had vomited, and some refused to fly again that day.
Safa Isinlik
ATP. Airbus A330
Senior Copilot
Turkish Airlines
Istanbul, Türkiye
During a flight from AXN (Alexandria MN) to HND (Henderson NV), the winds aloft were forecast to be 50–60 knots out of the west. Actual groundspeed readouts at cruise showed 100-plus knots of headwind. We couldn’t get to our planned fuel stop of GJT (Grand Junction CO) with any reserve fuel, and the whole of Colorado’s Front Range was low IFR. I explained the situation to ATC, they observed the same groundspeed, and I requested divert to BFF (Scottsbluff NE), about 50 miles ahead. I was cleared immediately and given a descent, landed, refueled, refiled nonstop, and completed the flight.
Dan Miller
ATP King Air 200
Owner & Contract Pilot
Sunnybrook Air Service
Wellington CO