Air Austral turn around?

[Nick W]

REU771 left this morning at 8:12 turned around and just landed back in Sydney. Anyone know anything about this?

[Grahame Hutchison]

Only the one ACARS pickup today although the Sydney Airport website shows the arrival Scheduled at 0741 delayed until 1245.

F-ORUN UU0771 14/01/2011 08:25 Air Austral B777-2Q8(ER) CDG-Reunion-Sydney-Noumea

[Radi K]

i woud suggest it is due to the weather in noumea

refer tropical cyclone vania

[Jayden Laing]

The odd thing is Radi, surely the pilots knew about the tropical cyclone in Noumea so the question is, Why did they leave Sydney for Noumea only get half way & turn around because of bad weather.
To me, that just doesn't make sense??

[James Smith]

The weather must have deteriorated markedly while they were on their way to Noumea.

[Radi K]

the TAF only showed 45 kts and down the runway with tempo periods that was below the minima.

the actual cyclone was a weak one and has since turned into a tropical low heading towards YSNF

in other words it was worth a shot....but today they closed NWWW for most of the day so I'm not sure he would have been able to get out till the afternoon anyway....

[Radi K]

the TAF from yesterday

TAF AMD NWWW 131855Z 1318/1418 13030G45KT 8000 RA SCT016 FEW023TCU OVC040
TEMPO 1318/1418 2000 HEAVY SHRA SCT008 BKN010TCU OVC025
PROB40 TEMPO 1318/1418 1000 TSRA BKN005 BKN013CB OVC020