Incident: Canada B789 near Hyderabad on Sep 19th 2017, ATC tries to divert aircraft despite several Mayday calls following two diversionsAn Air Canada 787 flight from Toronto was on approach to Mumbai when it had it's clearance cancelled due to a previous aircraft's runway excursion.
After being in a hold for an hour the crew decided to divert to their planned alternate airport and set course, however, shortly afterwards ATC told the crew that the alternate was unable to accommodate them due to being at maximum capacity. The crew consulted with dispatch and decided to divert to Hyderabad (India). The aircraft climbed to FL250 and was enroute to Hyderabad when ATC told them, that Hyderabad also was unable to accommodate them due to being at maximum capacity. The flight crew declared Mayday due to being low on fuel, however, ATC instructed them to enter a hold and tried to divert them several times before giving them a direct route to Hyderabad following the fourth (!) Mayday declaration. The aircraft landed in Hyderabad 118 minutes after aborting the approach to Mumbai.
The Canadian TSB reported: "The operator reported that ATC continued trying to divert the flight or attempted to place it in another hold. The flight crew had to declare MAYDAY four times before ATC cleared them for the approach into VOHS.
https://avherald.com/h?article=4af4dc97&opt=0For those who don't understand why this is serious, when you declare 'mayday' it means that there is an imminent danger to life or the continuation of flight (as opposed to 'pan pan' which is a state of urgency without imminent danger) such as an engine fire or
running out of fuel.
When it is declared everyone else on the radio frequency is meant to shut up and ATC is to provide assistance and priority to the crew in trouble - whether that be getting any conflicting traffic out of the way, providing information, or alerting emergency services to be ready.
So it's quite extraordinary to see ATC actually attempt to divert or place an aircraft in an emergency situation simply because their chosen landing place has no parking available. At that point the crew probably could've told ATC to shove it and keep the runway clear because they're going to land anyway, and still be legally in the clear.
It'd be interesting to hear the audio of this, actually...
https://goo.gl/images/MNybWt
Notice a similarity between the Valor and the Whale? How do you make the RCS of those engines/inlets/blades drop by orders of magnitude?
Probably the same way they did for that stealth Blackhawk - ie it's classified. I was thinking that if they are trying to incorporate some kind of stealth technologies in it then maybe it's not meant to be proper stealth like the B2 or F117, but rather uses materials which might reduce return, make it lighter, and make it less audible (note the video has no sound).
All rampant speculation of course.
