An American Airlines Boeing 787-9 en route to Naples, Italy was forced to divert to Rome-Fiumicino (FCO) during its final approach after it was discovered that the destination airport lacked the capability to accommodate an aircraft of its size.
While American Airlines typically operates smaller Boeing 787-8 aircraft on its established Philadelphia (PHL) to Naples (NAP) service, on June 4, 2025, the US carrier deployed the larger 787-9 variant instead.
Naples-Capodichino Airport (NAP) has a single runway 2,628 meters long (8,622 ft), which is just enough for a Boeing 787-8 if some payload limitations are applied, but it falls short of the takeoff requirements for a B787-9.
After landing at Fiumicino airport, some 220 km (140 miles) north of Naples, passengers had to be bused to their final destination, adding several hours to their journey. On the day of the incident, Flight AA780 had 231 passengers and 11 crew members onboard.
American Airlines restarted its daily seasonal Philadelphia-Naples service in May 2025, as part of its European summer network expansion.
5 comments
Hilarious!
Around 8,500 ft of runway is TYPICALLY needed (ISA) for a 787-9 to takeoff and achieve climb AT MTOW.
The length needed can vary depending on factors like altitude, temperature and runway conditions.
Opps!
Don’t you mean: Oops?
Hello Dispatch….. You Failed!
Curious who caught the error. Guessing it might have been the tower, as the issue was raised on the final approach according to the article. So tower must have commented about the aircraft type code and mentioned they never had or could not handle the -9 variant.
If they landed they could have operated back out by limiting the takeoff weight (Fuel & Pax) to parameters well under the required parameters, so somebody had to do some research and calculations.