Passengers on Etihad Airways flight EY-140 from Toronto to Abu Dhabi stayed on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for almost a day. At the same time, they had to make two unplanned landings. First — to fix the breakdown, and the second — for a crew change.
Etihad Airways Flight EY-140 took off from Toronto Pearson Airport around 9:30 pm Friday, but shortly after takeoff, the pilots informed passengers that there was a technical problem that could not be fixed in the air . The commander decided to immediately return to Toronto.
The plane was sent to “make circles” over Lake Ontario to burn excess fuel before landing. At Toronto Airport, engineers were already ready to begin inspecting the malfunctioning aircraft.
According to passengers, they were not allowed to go out into the fresh air during the parking and repair.
The flight finally started again at 6:40 am on Saturday, but at some point during the flight to Abu Dhabi, the pilots again “cheered” passengers with the news that the Boeing was actually landing in Kuwait because the crew had reached the absolute limit of their legal working hours.
As a result, the plane made a second unscheduled landing — in Kuwait so that the new crew of pilots and flight attendants could board the plane for the last hour to Abu Dhabi.
The whole process naturally took longer, adding almost two hours to the time passengers had to endure in airplane. They arrived in Abu Dhabi at 5:30 am on Sunday.
Many travelers missed their scheduled connections and now have to wait for the right flights.
Etihad offered these passengers hotel accommodation , but delays at passport control forced some to stay at the airport.
An Etihad spokesperson commented: “We fully understand that your flight has been delayed in an unfortunate way. However, as the safety and comfort of our guests and crew is our top priority, the flight was canceled due to technical issues. Our teams have been working hard to fix this as quickly as possible.”
