A US-bound flight from Sydney turned back on Tuesday after a note found on board raised fears of a bomb threat, Australia’s government said.

Flight UAL840, carrying 246 passengers and bound for Los Angeles, landed safely back in Sydney airport nearly three hours after take-off.

Okay, that’s interesting. I looked up the flight information in SABRE for this flight, and it’s described as a crew issue.


¤QUA/2840/27JUL«
UA RESPONSE
F:UA840/27JUL
MEL/2029CT/OFF 1129A .14E
SYD/0503CT/IN 550P 5.00L ‡DPTS CNCLD
LAX/0504CT/ARVS CNCLD ‡ETD 100P OT
JFK/0504CT/ETA 927P OT
SYD/WAS OFF SYD 257P - RETURNED TO FIELD DUE TO CREW
SYDLAX/PSGR PROT - FIRAV


I had been wondering how flight disruptions would be coded in the flight information – the gobbledey gook above – and perhaps this is considered more tactful and less fear-mongering to word it that way.

It means:

“United Flight 840 on 27JUL04 departed from Melbourne at 1129am, 14 minutes early. Arrived Sydney (on the ground 509pm, at the gate 550pm) 5 hours late. Departure cancelled. Los Angeles arrival cancelled. Estimated time of departure onward 1pm, on time. JFK estimated time of arrival 927pm, on time (this means they substituted another aircraft for the domestic flight to New York). Notes – flight had departed Sydney at 257pm, then ‘returned to field due to crew.’ Sydney to Los Angeles passengers were or to be protected on the first available flight.”

Australia’s a bit nervy about terrorist threats these days, so there will probably be more incidents and developments. Whoever the idiot was that pulled the hoax will probably be caught, since all they have to do is fingerprint everyone on the flight. It’s unlikely they bothered to glove up for a little joke.