Few minutes before landing, pilots of American Airlines transatlantic flight realized the runway of Naples was too short.
American Airlines has been serving Naples, Italy from Philadelphia since 2024 as a seasonal summer route. The flight is operated by the Boeing 787-8, the smallest of Boeing’s three Dreamliners, the only version authorized to land on the airport’s single 2,630-meter -long runway.
On June 2, the Boeing 787-8 scheduled for this flight was replaced at the last minute by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner (registration N837AN).
Pilots of American Airlines flight AA780 were only made aware of the error when air traffic control informed them, while they were in the initial phase of descent, that they would not be able to land, as JonNYC points out on X.
The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner with 285 passengers on board was at 29,000 feet when it turned around and diverted to the runway at Rome Fiumicino, 220 km from its intended destination.
Aside from being only 20 feet (6.1 m) longer than its smaller counterpart, the Boeing 787-9 and the 787-8 have very few differences, the main one being their passenger capacity.
Authorizing a type of aircraft to land on a particular runway depends on the RFFS (requirements for rescue-and-firefighting services) standards. Landing a 787-8 can be done at airports classified as RFFS 8, RFFS 9 for the 787-9. Naples Airport is classified as RFFS 8, which allows the landing of a 787-8, but not the heavier 787-9.
After the flight landed in Rome, the passengers were transported by bus to Naples, a journey of approximately three hours. “We apologize to them for this disruption to their travel,” American Airlines said in a statement.
