A United Airlines flight from Washington, D.C. to Cancun had to divert to Havana, Cuba yesterday after pilots smelled a strong electrical odor in the cockpit. 

How often does that happen?  No one is sure it ever has with a US airliner.  US and Cuba don’t have formal diplomatic relations but the air agencies of each do cooperate as a matter of course.  (Cubana flights overfly the United States, for instance.) 

United Airlines sent another aircraft to accomodate the passengers since you can’t exactly book people on the next Cubana flight out to Mexico.  What’s happened with the first airliner hasn’t exactly been revealed but I would guess that mechanics were sent and the aircraft ferried to the nearest base possible. 

Was it legal?  Sure.  Captains have the discretion to make such decisions and I’m sure this one wasn’t taken lightly.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax