February did not start well for Swiss International Air Lines. Yesterday, LX 40 from Zürich to Los Angeles, operated by nearly-new Boeing 777-3DE(ER) HB-JND, suffered an automatic shutdown of the #1 (left) GE90-115B engine approximately 290 nm north of Iqaluit and diverted to Iqaluit, landing safely about 100 minutes after the initial event.
Swiss subsequently cancelled LX 15 from New York to Zürich and ferried Airbus A330-343 HB-JHK "Herisau" to Iqaluit (as LX 7002) to transport the stranded passengers to New York where they could be more easily rebooked to LAX or beyond.
Today's Featured Map shows the geodesic path for the flight, marking the closest point to Iqaluit along that path (calculated by plotting ZRH-LAX,YFB) and the approximate path of the replacement aircraft from JFK. Also shown, in orange, is the approximate path to the point of engine failure and the actual path from there. Note that the closest point on the geodesic (shorterst) path is south of Iqaluit whereas the failure and diversion occurred north of Iqaluit. The more-northerly actual path flown was likely due to adverse headwinds at lower latitudes.
References and additional information:
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Karl L. Swartz.
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