Lufthansa 418 (B744) circling over CT

earlier today while I was playing tennis, I looked to the sky and watched as a 744 made a full 180 degree turn overhead, only to return several minutes later and repeat that loop.

if you go to the HPN passur tracker (http://www4.passur.com/hpn.html) and enter the time 15:45 for April 9th and zoom out to 80 mile radius, you will see it off the coast of Bridgeport. It then goes in a circular pattern.

Considering the fact that this appears to have been a scheduled passenger flight enroute FRA-IAD, does anyone have any idea why this 747-400 would be circling over CT at FL 321?

Thanks in advance for any info

There were likely arrival delays into IAD. If he was not on schedule, they would have to slot him in somewhere. There is a holding point over the Calverton VOR, he was possibly put into a hold there. It's not unusual for enroute holds even with Int'l trips.

UA221 (A319-802UA) had an engine fire and evac'ed on runway 30 yesterday. Even though no runways intersect at Dulles, it came to rest close enough to the approach path that no one could land on 1L (typical afternoon/north winds config is on 1L/1R, off 30). So, for about 90 minutes, until the Airbus was towed off, IAD could only arrive on 1R. There were a handful of diverts to RIC and BWI, but I suppose everyone else just did some airborne holding while the arrival rate was slowed. Your Lufti was D-ABVM, if you'd like to log it :>

wow. thanks for the extensive info. makes a lot more sense now.