Why Was This Flight Diverted

[Vinny Ohare]

Hi all

My buddy was on a flight today from Austin to JFK and he was diverted to Orlando. I checked flight aware and it looks like he was right outside Atlanta. I am wondering why they had to go all the way to Orlando. I also wonder what type of emergency it was? It couldn't be anything major if they flew all the way to Orlando?
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/JBU1064/history/20121019/1734Z/KAUS/KMCO

[Mateo]

1.) It takes a while to descend a jet; 3 miles per 1000' is a rule of thumb, so it takes 100 miles to descend from cruising altitude.
2.) If it's not a 'land immediately' situation, you generally want to divert to an airport where your airline has a station.
3.) MCO is a decent size JBU station, so they may have mx facilities there that can repair an A320.
4.) The nearest JBU station to the divert point is either JAX or CLT, but those are both small stations with (I think) E190 flights only, so not a lot of spare capacity. MCO may have been the only station in the general vicinity that would have been able to re-accommodate the passengers.

[Vinny Ohare]

Thanks for that explantation, makes sense.

[yankees368]

MCO is a major jetblue station. Heck, all of their new aircraft arrivals end up there first for the Live TV retrofit before they even being regular flights.

[bluejuice]

An issue with the anti-ice. Repaired in MCO>

[Whitese]

Can't they circle down to avoid making 3 miles /1000 feet?

[moose135]

You can, but if turning that altitude into distance gets you to a place where your jet can be fixed and your pax accommodated with the least impact, why would you, unless it's an emergency?

[snydersnapshots]

1.) It takes a while to descend a jet; 3 miles per 1000' is a rule of thumb, so it takes 100 miles to descend from cruising altitude.
2.) If it's not a 'land immediately' situation, you generally want to divert to an airport where your airline has a station.
3.) MCO is a decent size JBU station, so they may have mx facilities there that can repair an A320.
4.) The nearest JBU station to the divert point is either JAX or CLT, but those are both small stations with (I think) E190 flights only, so not a lot of spare capacity. MCO may have been the only station in the general vicinity that would have been able to re-accommodate the passengers.

I agree with everything you say. It sounds like they lost part of the anti-ice system and didn't want to take the airplane into icing conditions. Diverting to MCO was quite a bit out of the way but overall I think it was a good decision. Since this wasn't a serious "land at the nearest suitable airport" situation, they could take the time to go to an airport where they had adequate customer service and maintenance facilities. Another factor may have been landing weight. I don't know how heavy they were, but they may have been over landing weight, thus the divert to MCO would burn more fuel, making them legal to land without having to hold and burn fuel.