American Airlines sent a Boeing 787 Dreamliner with as many as 285 passengers onboard across the Atlantic on an eight-hour overnight flight, only to realize with minutes to go before arrival that it was the wrong type of plane to land at its intended destination.
It seems as if the pilots of American Airlines flight AA780 from Philadelphia to Naples, Italy, on Tuesday, were only made aware of the mistake when air traffic control informed them as they were in their initial descent for landing that they wouldn’t be able to land, as highlighted by aviation insider xJonNYC on X and Bluesky.
American Airlines has served Naples from Philadephia since 2024 as a summer seasonal route from Philadelphia, while a new non-stop route between Chicago and Naples was added last month. Both routes are operated by the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.
The 787-8 is the smallest of the three Dreamliners produced by Boeing, and it’s necessary to use this aircraft to land at Naples Airport as it’s the only Dreamliner permitted to land on the airport’s single 8,622-foot-long runway.
On June 3, however, the Boeing 787-8 that had been scheduled to operate the flight was swapped out at the last moment. In its place, staffers in AA’s operations control center in Texas found another Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Equipment swaps are, after all, not all that uncommon and can happen for a variety of reasons, including maintenance issues or the intended plane being delayed on a previous sector.
On this occasion, American Airlines found a spare Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to operate the flight, and it seems as if it didn’t flag up on anyone’s radar that this particular aircraft type was not certified to land in Naples.
This seemingly simple mistake was not discovered until the plane started to make its descent towards Naples. On learning of the restriction, the pilots then entered into a short holding pattern while they put a plan together and then diverted to Rome, further up the Italian coast.
Once in Rome, the airline did the best it could with the resources it now found itself with, utilizing the larger Boeing 787-9 to operate a daily service to Chicago. But what of the passengers stranded in Naples who were hoping to fly home to Philadelphia?
Well, they had to wait an extra day in Naples while American Airlines arranged for the Boeing 787-8 intended for the Rome to Chicago flight to fly the short distance down to Naples and pick them up.
Apart from being just three meters longer than its smaller counterpart, there is very little difference between the Boeing 787-9 and the 787-8. Both have a wingspan of 60 meters and a height of 17 meters, so you can probably understand why American Airlines might have been confused.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) classifies Naples Aiport as a ‘4 D’ airfield, which means that it generally isn’t permissible for larger aircraft to use the airfield.
This rule would generally apply to both the 787-8 and 787-9, but presumably, Italian authorities have managed to carve out an exemption for the smallest of the Dreamliner models.
No doubt this won’t be a mistake that American Airlines will be making again after learning about the certification issues the hard (and expensive) way.
expensive? not for AA . they won’t pay passengers anything. it was a “weather” issue!