Thursday night we had two aircraft to work on. First aircraft was there at 20:30 hours (8:30 pm) and the second plane was suppose to be in at 00:30 hours (12:30 am)......a RED eye special. So we took a nap between planes and were told it was moved back to arrive at 01:15 hours. I woke up at 10 minutes after 1 and was told the plane made an approach, aborted landing and diverted to Austin for fuel.
We looked outside and decided it was good enough weather for our Headup Display System (HUD) to get the plane down to 50 foot elevation. If the captain had not acquired sight of the runway at 50 feet, he goes around. This flight came in from St. Louis. So it should have had all tail winds. Why, I asked did he need to go to Austin and get fuel????????? Did the FO mess up on the fuel reserve load??? Was the HUD not working????? We could see the top of the terminal from across the airport, so we knew the ceiling was above 50 feet. So we had to wait until he returned from Austin to work on the plane. So we got hands on the plane at 03:45 this morning.
It's still a mystery to us MX folks why he didn't land. The two mechanics that taxied the plane back did not push the captain for an answer, as his night, morning, and next day was a mess already.
hugs, Brandi