4 ms·

The author says in the comments that they were over 2 hours from any airport, and given that this was halfway into a 17 hour flight, it's a fair guess they were

The author says in the comments that they were over 2 hours from any airport, and given that this was halfway into a 17 hour flight, it's a fair guess they were somewhere over the Pacific -- the closest airport might have been on some little island. I think you make a good point, but sounds like it was a tough call in this instance.

cperciva 10y ago
The only flight Delta operates of this length is between Atlanta and Johannesburg, so they would have been over the Atlantic.
- mseebach 10y ago
  http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=ATL-JNB http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=ATL-JNB The nearest non-final destination for almost the entire flight is (a) pretty far away from the flight path anyway (b) probably not on anyones list of places they'd hope to end up in a severe medical emergency.
  - lucb1e 10y ago
    Wow, that path looks like it avoids any kind of land on purpose. Might make sense for legal issues, but I'd be much more comfortable if it went partly over South America or Africa (or close to the shore) in case of trouble with the plane.
    - mseebach 10y ago
      That path is a great circle path, it's simply the shortest path across the face of the earth. It's not a flight plan or anything (but, being the shortest path, it's pretty close to what any given flight would follow). http://www.gcmap.com/faq/intro#definegc http://www.gcmap.com/faq/intro#definegc Also, because it's so far from land, there are special procedures that need to be in place, see eg. ETOPS.
    - ejstronge 10y ago
      There are actually regulations about how far an airplane can be from land - it's why so many flight paths are similar (US-Scotland overlaps US-Paris, for example). You can use this website to see the true flight path for the Johannessburg flight: http://dl.fltmaps.com/en http://dl.fltmaps.com/en [enter Atlanta and Johannesburg as the endpoints] EDIT: Can't find an FAA source about distances to airport, but here's a related Wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS
      - mseebach 10y ago
        That map does not show true flight paths, those are heavily stylised. This is a true flight path, and it's much closer to the great circle: https://www.flightradar24.com/DAL200/ae190b1 https://www.flightradar24.com/DAL200/ae190b1
        ejstronge 10y ago
        You're right - I didn't realize those maps were stylized. Thanks for the correction!

cperciva 10y ago

The only flight Delta operates of this length is between Atlanta and Johannesburg, so they would have been over the Atlantic.

mseebach 10y ago
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=ATL-JNB http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=ATL-JNB The nearest non-final destination for almost the entire flight is (a) pretty far away from the flight path anyway (b) probably not on anyones list of places they'd hope to end up in a severe medical emergency.
- lucb1e 10y ago
  Wow, that path looks like it avoids any kind of land on purpose. Might make sense for legal issues, but I'd be much more comfortable if it went partly over South America or Africa (or close to the shore) in case of trouble with the plane.
  - mseebach 10y ago
    That path is a great circle path, it's simply the shortest path across the face of the earth. It's not a flight plan or anything (but, being the shortest path, it's pretty close to what any given flight would follow). http://www.gcmap.com/faq/intro#definegc http://www.gcmap.com/faq/intro#definegc Also, because it's so far from land, there are special procedures that need to be in place, see eg. ETOPS.
  - ejstronge 10y ago
    There are actually regulations about how far an airplane can be from land - it's why so many flight paths are similar (US-Scotland overlaps US-Paris, for example). You can use this website to see the true flight path for the Johannessburg flight: http://dl.fltmaps.com/en http://dl.fltmaps.com/en [enter Atlanta and Johannesburg as the endpoints] EDIT: Can't find an FAA source about distances to airport, but here's a related Wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS
    - mseebach 10y ago
      That map does not show true flight paths, those are heavily stylised. This is a true flight path, and it's much closer to the great circle: https://www.flightradar24.com/DAL200/ae190b1 https://www.flightradar24.com/DAL200/ae190b1
      - ejstronge 10y ago
        You're right - I didn't realize those maps were stylized. Thanks for the correction!