Manchester does not get many jumbo jets any more. On Saturday afternoon, 26 September, it got one it had not planned for, and by Sunday there were two of them parked side by side on the ramp.

Lufthansa flight LH470 from Frankfurt to Toronto was cruising over Scotland when the crew squawked 7700 and turned south. The Boeing 747-400, registration D-ABVY, landed at Manchester a little under two hours after take-off. According to The Aviation Herald, the reason was a burning odour on board.

A Smell Over Scotland

Flight-tracking reconstructions by AirLive show the jumbo leaving Frankfurt at 15:00 local time and climbing out over the Netherlands. About an hour and a half into the flight, over Scotland, the crew made a sudden left turn and declared a general emergency. Air traffic control gave them a direct routing to Manchester.

Simple Flying, citing The Aviation Herald, reported that the aircraft was about 180 nautical miles north of Manchester when a passenger reported a burning smell, followed by another passenger who said they had seen smoke. Passengers also reported flickering lavatory lights and at least one in-flight entertainment screen losing power. None of that has been confirmed by Lufthansa, and no cause has been published.

It is the same logic that sent a Delta A330 into Porto the next day. A crew heading out over the North Atlantic with an unexplained burning smell does not keep going. Manchester was big, close and had a runway long enough for a heavy 747.

Because the jet was still carrying most of the fuel for an Atlantic crossing, the crew had to land well above the normal landing weight. AirLive reported that the aircraft stopped on a taxiway after landing on runway 23R, where fire crews checked the brakes and landing gear, a standard precaution after an overweight landing.

Send in the Second Jumbo

An initial plan to continue the flight from Manchester the same evening was dropped, and the service was cancelled. Instead, Lufthansa sent a replacement 747-400. Flight-tracking data cited by Simple Flying shows D-ABVW completed the trip to Toronto, while D-ABVY stayed on the ground in the UK.

That produced the rare picture of two Lufthansa 747s parked together at Manchester. Simple Flying notes that the airport has had no regular passenger 747 service since Virgin Atlantic retired its jumbos in 2020.

The Queen Keeps Working

Lufthansa is one of the last big passenger operators of the 747. Its 747-400s are now around a quarter of a century old and are still flying long-haul routes while the airline waits for its first Boeing 777-9s, which have been repeatedly delayed.

A single diversion says nothing about the age of the aircraft; smells and smoke events happen on brand-new jets too. But a fleet with this much seniority gets watched closely, and Lufthansa had a second 747 available to rescue the passengers within a day. Afterburner will update if a cause is published.

Sources: The Aviation Herald, AirLive, Simple Flying, Think Planes (video).