United flight stops in Iqaluit for passenger’s medical issue
Flight 949 was en route from London to San Francisco
Iqaluit’s airport is where a United Airlines flight made an unscheduled stop Saturday afternoon to address a passenger’s medical issue, the airline says. (File photo)
A United Airlines flight from London to San Francisco diverted to Iqaluit Saturday afternoon to deal with a medical issue with a passenger, the airline says.
The airline asked for medical personnel to meet the plane on arrival, the airline’s media relations department said in an email.
United did not provide information about the passenger’s age, gender or condition. It also did not say whether the passenger remained in Iqaluit or continued with the flight.
The flight left London at 2 p.m. GMT on Saturday, and touched down in Iqaluit at 2:46 p.m. ET, the FlightAware flight tracking app said.
It left Iqaluit for San Francisco at 4:39 p.m.
FlightAware identified the plane as a Boeing 777-200.
International flights crossing the Atlantic or Arctic oceans occasionally make unscheduled stops in Iqaluit for a variety of reasons.
In May 2024, an Air France flight from Paris to Seattle, Wash., diverted to Iqaluit when a “heat smell” forced the plane to make a an unscheduled stop.
In October 2024, an Air India flight from New Delhi to Chicago was re-rerouted to Iqaluit because of what federal officials said was a “bomb threat.”
That last sentence got me.
Yeah, let’s bring in a plane with a bomb threat. Just what Iqaluit needs.
You’re better off going to Chicago. We have enough issues without adding a bomb to the mix.
What a ridiculous comment. There is no place on earth that “needs” a bomb.
Perhaps I should have suggested that we are not in the position to deal with it like other large communities.
Yeah. Good suggestion to bring a bomb-threat flight to North America’s 4th busiest airport that serves 200,000 passengers per day. I’m sure those people wouldn’t mind the delays. And the people on board probably don’t mind staying on board a flight with a bomb threat for an extra 3 hours to get there.
What if the Iqaluit airport adopts a two-level fee system for the services it provides?
One level of fees would apply to airlines that offer scheduled flights to Nunavut or within Nunavut. A higher level of fees would apply to airlines that do offer scheduled flights to or within Nunavut.
To qualify for the lower level of fees, require at least 1 flight each week in each direction between a pair of cities. Then Nunavummiut get access to much of the world, under resonable conditions.
International flights could require a 2-week advanced purchase. If, 2 weeks before departure, no tickets to or from Nunavut are bought, the scheduled flight becomes a non-stop flight, saving the airline the cost of fuel for landing and take-off.
It appears Canadian North does not want its customers to have alternative options.
I, for one, would appreciate the opportunity to fly direct from Iqaluit to Rome or Paris for a vacation, for less than the price of a ticket to Ottawa.
Why do people get so butthurt when a plane makes an emergency landing here? There is usually someone complaining about safety and one suggesting we should bilk the situation for every penny.
Sad, sad people.