Korean Air KE037 diverts to KMSP

it is the pilots decision to divert. maybe his intended time of landing and the present weather conditions didn't look to good to land @ ORD. sure, it is costly but, safety is #1.

this is major news.....planes never have to divert after flying 12 hours....maybe they really dont have unlimited fuel.

alistair and myron both of you might be right but i am leaning towards not enough furl or an unruly passenger

Agreed Mark!, but if a mechanical was involved as much as a switch indicator, your going to park the plane! Flown many
long legs as commerical PIC, Being one of the first women in commerical air, I've always flown as we say "by the book"....OVER

i found this:

http://theweathercentre.blogspot.com/2011/07/chicago-storms-72211.html

and this:
http://www.nbcchicago.com/weather/stories/july-22-storm-damage-126026413.html

So perhaps Asiana flight 236 landed after this storm moved out. Just a guess...

Maybe the weather changed? Let's look into it...

I looked closely at this case and i found out that, Asiana airliners flight 236 departs Seoul ahead of KE037 so Asiana 236 got inside the ORD airspace and had to circle around many times until he got clearance to land at ORD. But on the other sider, KE037 wasn't in the ORD airspace and was near MSP airport so the captain made the change to divert to MSP rather than go to ORD and circle for a long time because maybe they didn't have enough fuel...

comment by jee lee. true, why fly into when they know the holding pattern will consume more fuel. airlines have enough fuel to divert without any chance of no fuel. this would occurred if in a holding pattern. nothing new.

There are a huge number of regulatory and commercial factors that play into a decision when to divert and where to divert. One not mentioned is how to best accomadate the PAX onboard who 9 times outta 10 are not going to end up in Chicago-but connect to ongoing flights. I am not sure of the affiliations Asian and Korean have with US carriers but MSP does have better connections than Rockford, GRR or MKE.

The Captain is not the only one making 'the call' or doing it blindly without input from operations and customer service. Diverts can be very expensive if you end up in Midway (Island, not Chicago)...

ORD was a mess that night...Actually Saturday we set the record for Chicago rainfall at almost 7" in 24 hr period with a train of TStorms rolling through.

If there are any questions about WX (weather) ahead/behind ck WX.com (NOAA weather), in text for pilots and radars are avi for the novice flt aware which I am sure are few! Thx for the info Alistair! Out