Pats* fans cause trouble, get flight canceled

[sherpa]

15 hours ago, Just Jack said:

 

Story time.  Back in the fall of 2007 the ex and I were on a flight to China with a tour group.  JFK-Beijing, direct flight, no stops on Air China.  3pm was our listed departure time.  Everything seems to be going smoothly, we get in line for take off.  I have a window seat and I happened to notice we were getting out of line.  Sure enough, captain announces there's a mechanical issue, so they take us back to a gate, but don't let us off while they fix it.  Two hours later, we leave the gate, get back in line.  Few minutes later, I see us getting back out of line.  Captain announces, they found another issue.  But this time we don't go to a gate, they take us somewhere on the tarmac.  It was then people started wondering about the PBOR.  Turns out it was being discussed, but not yet official.  So we were stuck on board as long as they wanted to keep us there.  Two hours later, plane is fixed again.  Except, because the crew gave us food and drinks, we now had to wait for catering to come and replenish the plane.  So another two hour wait, before we could leave.  Finally at 9pm, we take off for our 14 hour flight.  It's the only time I've been on a plane where the passengers clapped on take off.  

 

The pax bill of rights would not apply to Air China anyway.

Per your post, I am shocked that the flight operated.

Given the delays you mentioned US regulations would have made the flight illegal regarding cockpit crew duty time.

What the passenger bill of rights has done is result in multiple more cancelations.

When the forecast is indicating there will probably be huge delays, they simply cancel.

This is most especially done when it looks like deicing will be involved.

Deicing is a very time consuming and labor intensive operation.

 

My favorite story of a crazy delay occurred in July of 2013.

I was going from JFK to Tokyo, 777.

Left the gate on time late in the evening. When number two for takeoff, was told the airport was shutting down for two hours.

A highly publicized solar airplane was going to land at JFK, and they were shutting down all airspace as this 25 mph airplane came in.

The original agreement that got them permission said they had to land at 3am. At 3am the fiasco would have been avoided.

They claimed they had a tear in a wing and needed to land at about 11pm.

I never believed it and it made no sense.

 

Anyway, there are a bunch of international departures in line.

Many European carriers do not provide "augmented" crews, (meaning one extra guy), for trips to western European destination, like London City Airport  or Paris, since they are not over the eight hour limit requiring an extra guy.

Still, you can't go over eight hours, son one by one about five of them tell ground they are cancelling and going back to gates.

As this event was unannounced by anyone, airplanes trying to get into LaGuardia are holding and starting to run out of fuel.

Three separate domestic flights declare fuel emergencies on land at JFK.

A total idiotic near disaster.

Anyway this piece of trash lands and we get airborne two hours late.

Of course arriving that late in Tokyo, public transportation is shut down, so the passengers had to deal with that.

[Just Jack]

On 7/9/2021 at 6:04 AM, sherpa said:

This is most especially done when it looks like deicing will be involved.

Deicing is a very time consuming and labor intensive operation.

 

I've got a story about de-icing.  Flying Atlanta to Syracuse on Delta, last direct flight of the day, weather is bad enough to need de-icing.  We all get boarded and are told we need to wait to be de-iced.  I forgot how long we sat there at the gate, but it was long enough that at one time they said people could get off to go in the terminal and stretch their legs, but don't go far, because we could leave any time.  Anyways, by time the pilots got the call that they could go get in line to be de-iced, they announced that with the time to de-ice, taxi, and flight, would put them over the allowed number of hours they could be on duty, so the flight was cancelled.  

 

Now at the time, I had decent status with Delta, at least Gold level, so my phone alerted me to an alternate flight, I think somehow through Indianapolis.  But I had co-workers with me so I wanted to ask them what they were going to do.  By time we talked, that alternate flight was taken and all hotel vouchers were gone to, so I spent the night in one of the Delta lounges. Just about every seat was taken with stranded passengers.  (But I get paid hourly, so as long as I did not leave the airport, I was "on the clock")

 

Next morning, I get an alternate flight, Atlanta to JFK, then JFK to Syracuse.  We get going and as we get near NYC/JFK, the pilot announces that do to air traffic backed up in NYC, we would have to go to another airport to get more fuel, then back to NYC.  And the airport we were going to land at was Syracuse.  Call bells start going off all over the plane.  A lot of people like me were on the cancelled flight the night before, and we just wanted to go home.  The thought was if we're going to land in Syracuse for fuel, just let us off.  At first they weren't going to let us off, then they tried to make us stay on by saying that they would not unload our luggage.  We didn't care, we just wanted to go home.  They did let us off thankfully because I seriously don't know what would have happened if they had not.  

 

As for my luggage, I just watched the flight tracker for the JFK-Syracuse flight and when I saw it was close to landing, I went back to the airport and got my luggage then.