Well, at least the last one to fly for a while. I landed in Tokyo on my flight from Bangkok to hear an announcement that the flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles was cancelled. I didn’t think much of it since I’m going to San Francisco. But then I heard the FAA grounded United’s 787 fleet and made the connection. LAX-NRT was oen of the routes where United operates the 787!
I actually saw the plane taxiing from the ANA lounge. It seems the plane was grounded en route, so while it may be here now, it isn’t going to be taking any customers back to Los Angeles today. What an odd coincidence, where my life intersects with the news of the world… UPDATE: It turns out that United is doing everything it can to distance itself from the 787 while this plays out. The promotional video about the 787 Dreamliner was muted during the safety briefing on the 747 I flew back from NRT to SFO. Once at SFO, the video wasn’t even played at all before our departure to SEA. Instead we got a live safety demo. My guess is the safety video and promo video are one and the same. Perhaps they didn’t have enough crew to do live demos on the 747, or the new instructions continue to be revised.
