My First Ever Medical Diversion! Virgin Atlantic Lands In Bermuda

Intro

Well, hello from Orlando, as my trip around the world has just taken quite a big twist after an unexpected diversion. Thank goodness the passenger is alright, but I’ve gotta say, this was quite hilarious. Allow me to elaborate. 

The Details 

Earlier this morning, I was flying on Virgin Atlantic (VS91) from London to Orlando on an A330-900Neo. All was going well, I tucked into a lovely pork belly, enjoyed some wine, and headed off to sleep with about 5.5 hours to Orlando. Or so I thought…

All cozy in bed. Right???

Approximately 3 hours later, I woke up and saw “21 minutes until landing”, and the new airport on the screen was “BDA” 😂. Like, huh? 

What is going on here???

The cabin crew had not announced it yet, but the decision had been made to divert to Bermuda. 

So, What Happened? 

Let’s break this down step by step on what occurred here: 

• Approximately 45 minutes after takeoff, an announcement was made. “If you are a doctor, could you please make yourself known to the cabin crew on board?”. At the time, I didn’t think much about this, but it turns out this would prove critical as a doctor was able to somewhat “stabilize” the person who was sick. 

• The passenger was then moved to Seat 7K (inoperable, no IFE), where he remained to sleep for most of the flight. 

• As we neared Bermuda, due to our southernly track, the doctors they were talking to on the ground informed them that it was better to divert. While the passenger wouldn’t have “died”, he still needed to get to a hospital. 

• Once on the ground, the passenger was offloaded, and so began the waiting game of what would occur. Interestingly, this is not the first time a VS plane on this route has diverted to Bermuda, and the previous time, the 744 had to spent the night in Bermuda. 

• The crew were lovely on the ground, we headed to “the loft” and just chatted the whole time. Ice cream was kept around, and everything was quite fun 😂

• The captain and FO kept us informed throughout the whole time on the ground, and we were wheels up to Orlando around 1 hour and 20 minutes after landing. 

Just like that: wheels up!

All things considered, that is a pretty good turnaround time. I was extremely impressed by how Virgin Atlantic handled this whole diversion. While it does impact by travels quite a bit, everything will be fine in the end, as I called up United while we were on the ground in BDA, and they switched me to fly to Calgary tomorrow free or charge. 

Best of all, the ill passenger is receiving treatment. 

Why Bermuda?

As we were waiting for the captain to sort out the rest of the paperwork, I asked the First Officer on today's flight why Bermuda was chosen as a diversion point. 

He said, “While none of us have ever landed here, this is our number one point of diversion due to fuel and hospitals”. Originally, I was thinking why not go on a northern track and divert to New York as the sickness started not long after takeoff (not pilot brain of mine), but it makes sense as I imagine they didn’t have to fuel dump in Bermuda. 

When I saw a Bermudair plane, I almost lost the plot haha

I also presume that the flight deck was in constant communication about this diversion, making sure the crew did not time out, as it would have gotten very costly. 

Final Thoughts

Today was quite the day for me, as I experienced my first medical diversion. After falling asleep on the way from London to Orlando, I woke up as we were diverting to Bermuda. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see my friends in Bermuda, but the passenger is now getting the treatment he needs and is said to be in good health. What an experience!

Lol, and to make things worse, someone ended up smoking on the plane on the second leg 😂