United B744 over Pacific on Feb 7th 2014, fumes on board

A United Boeing 747-400, registration N179UA performing flight UA-840 from Sydney,NS (Australia) to Los Angeles,CA (USA), was enroute at FL350 about one hour southwest of Honolulu,HI (USA), when the crew reported an electrical smell on board and decided to divert to Honolulu. On initial approach to Honolulu the crew mistakenly made their lengthy announcement to passengers on the radio reporting the aircraft was fine, they had some sort of an electrical smell about half an hour ago, and they were not going to Los Angeles but diverting to Honolulu as a precaution. Queried by ATC the crew confirmed they did have an electrical smell on board of the aircraft and apologized for the mistransmission. On tower frequency the crew told tower to treat the landing a precautionary rather than an emergency landing advising the odour had not gone any stronger. The aircraft landed safely on Honolulu's runway 08L about one hour after first reporting an electrical smell on board and taxied to the gate without stop. The crew terminated emergency status after vacating the runway.

The remainder of the flight was cancelled, the passengers were rebooked onto other flights.

The incident aircraft resumed service after 12 hours on the ground.