V-Flyer

Seems that the storms here in NY - where I have just moved - are pretty bad - bad enough to divert my partner's flight 45 to PHL

Do please update us, Jonathan!

Chuck-

Originally posted by ChuckC
Do please update us, Jonathan!

Chuck-

Quite a few diverted apparently - Qantas, Finnair, BA etc.

Just heard from Ben (the partner) that they landed, right now stuck on a remote stand.

No plans right now to deplane. Awaiting fuel and apparently are going to pop back up to JFK.

Which is good news, as there's only 3 flts to NY from PHL now (see how RETENTIVE I am about flights) and they are commuter planes and they are busy.

God bless Virgin US - we had a 4 minute argument about where VS45 was, they were adamant it was about to land at JFK - whereas FBOweb was clearly saying PHL and JFK's own site had it up as diverted. Good job I'm not the nervous type.

I vote to keep my AU account firmly in the U of K.

I know I'm replying to my own mail - but http://www.flightstats.com/go/Home/home.do
is a brilliant website.

Originally posted by Jonathan S
I know I'm replying to my own mail - but http://www.flightstats.com/go/Home/home.do
is a brilliant website.

I'm doing it again, but I thought to myseld 'I'd like to know what happens to that flight'... we'll they've been on the ground now on a remote stand for 2 hours.

Bearing in mind they were 2 hours late departing and NY to PHL is 30 mins that means he's been on the aircraft for around 12 hours. That's LON to SIN.

Now, to make matters worse, there are arguments happening over refueling (apparently the truck is there but they are having 'negotiations' - that means money issues to me)....

The crew have 3 hours left.

It's not looking good.

I'm reliably informed that Chicken Little has been played on the mainscreen (they won't hand on HP and he's in PE ((I'm hated for that now!)) - and they are being given a cup of tea.

Now there is a dispute. Philadelphia are demanding cash for fuel. Not credit.

Have a wip round,see what they can come up with...wonder if they would take LRoM's card [?] [y]

Well looks like I got out at the right time..wonder how Sailors doing?

...well, they seemed to stop arguing and loaded fuel in the end.

....Headed down the taxiway only to stop and return - crew over hours.

So now he's stuck in Philly all night. No one knows what's going on. They don't even have a stand right now to off load.

I can't help thinking if VS hadn't been in dispute over fuel (Captain's words) they wouldn't have gone over hours.

and If the cargo hold door wasn't damaged they wouldn't have been on the plane for 2 hours in LHR

...and they would have missed the storms.

14 hours on board and counting.

I bet Philly spotters were the only happy people out there today.

Originally posted by VS-EWR
I bet Philly spotters were the only happy people out there today.

No doubt. On the taxiway for 4 and a half hours.

Still on board. No staff at PHL to deplane an international flt/tsa etc.

So they are still on the plane. But at a stand (for the first time in over 6 hours)...

However, 2 relief flights from Beirut have just landed and been given priority.

The wait goes on.
(Pls don't flame me for this email - perhaps I should stop. But it's a bit addictive round here isn't it, and i thought you'd understand)

Have him jump off and garab an Acela

Originally posted by Decker
Have him jump off and garab an Acela

If only they'd let him off.

I don't get it. 358 pax. Full 747. Diverted over long island - why not go back to Boston? Same distance. And a VS station.

Apparently it's all kicking off with the airport authorities now.

They are being told to prepare to sleep on the plane.

WX is terrible around here. DL4608 ATL-BGM tonight was delayed 3 hours out of ATL due to ATC congestion/flow control in the NY area (I just got home from working the flight)... captain said they barely made it in due to the possibility of a crew timeout, and he said they hit one patch of storm on the way up that practically lifted everyone out of their seats.

PHL has been a royal mess too... US has been having flight delays all day, and their last PHL flight wasn't expected to arrive until after 1am... many hours late.

Good luck to everyone!

Originally posted by Jonathan S

Originally posted by Decker
Have him jump off and garab an Acela

If only they'd let him off.

I don't get it. 358 pax. Full 747. Diverted over long island - why not go back to Boston? Same distance. And a VS station.

Apparently it's all kicking off with the airport authorities now.

They are being told to prepare to sleep on the plane.

They're being told to sleep! How many hours in Y is considered acceptable for health and safety! This is shocking. I'll jump in and remove my feet from my mouth later but a) what a way for an airline to treat its passengers and b) what an appalling way for the US/FAA to treat its visitors ... someone needs to bang some heads together.

It has been pretty rough for all of them. He just called me and they've deplaned (about 10 mins ago) that's 7 hours on the tarmac.

Philly apparently have been extremely unhelpful. Issue now is 358 passengers in an airport where there is no VS ground staff. I'm not quite sure what they'll do. I've been trying to book a taxi for an hour - but no joy.

What is VS's responsibility now?

Originally posted by Jonathan S


It has been pretty rough for all of them. He just called me and they've deplaned (about 10 mins ago) that's 7 hours on the tarmac.

Philly apparently have been extremely unhelpful. Issue now is 358 passengers in an airport where there is no VS ground staff. I'm not quite sure what they'll do. I've been trying to book a taxi for an hour - but no joy.

What is VS's responsibility now?

Hmm, VS should arrange transport to JFK, that would be the normal thing, however with no ground staff, midnight and 358 tired pax and crew at an exceedingly unhelpful airport I'd take matters into my own hands. Have they their luggage off? If not I guess they'll put them in an airport hotel and fly up to JFK as soon as a relief crew can be found. If he has his luggage and you've got the dough I'd high tail out asap - given that you can find a car! Next train from Philly to New York is at 5.15 so that's a long wait too.

Spot on.

Finally found a brilliant cab firm. Bags are coming off.

Crew no where to be found (to be honest they must all be exhausted too, bless em)... I'm getting him in a cab back here ASAP.

I suppose we'll just have to keep the receipts, but getting home is the big priority.

Wow just read all this, any latest updates?

Originally posted by jetwet1
Have a wip round,see what they can come up with...wonder if they would take LRoM's card [?] [y]

Well looks like I got out at the right time..wonder how Sailors doing?

Nope, they wouldn't take amex ;)

I did fine. DFW was unaffected, and we only had to take a slightly longer route home. A colleague got stuck in Chicago though for hours.

Thanks for thinking of me though.

That's a really difficult situation to handle I think. The issue with diverting to BOS is finding stand space. Terminal E - the international terminal - with (I think) the only CBP immigration/customs checkpoint in the whole airport, gets pretty crowded as it is.

There really isn't that much space at BOS to handle diversions, there aren't even that many remotes which can handle B744s.

So, the other obvious alternative, if you wanted to divert to a VS station, would have been to continue to IAD, but maybe they were already suffering weather issues, slot delays, and parking constraints (if there are either a lot of ground delays or a lot of diversions there already).

So, what other options have you got... they start running out quickly with an aircraft as big as the 744. BWI, though they are probably used to dealing more with WNs 737s these days, at least VS could probably muster a hit squad together from the IAD staff to go over and try to sort the mess out. PIT, okay if you're not socked in by weather, but not a VS station.

So the other option is landing short, sitting the weather out, and then continuing. You got Bangor, Maine, very used to this sort of thing, and then the various Canadian airports, such as Halifax or St Johns.

Sometimes, you're stuck between a rock and a hard place, so you'll land wherever can take you, with a long enough runway, and you've enough fuel to get to. Everything else - handling, fuelling, etc., you'll have to wing it.

Cheers,
Mike

Similar situation happened to me a year or so ago. Got diverted to Philly, 2 hours on ground while they sorted fuel out and luckily, the captain decided it would be best all round to get us back up to JFK. Luckily, the crews hours had not run out.

Originally posted by Gelding
Wow just read all this, any latest updates?

In closing. So, he got home at 6.30am having shared a cab with three others from Philadelphia. No crew appeared in the airport and no instructions were given other than 'let's get you off the plane'.

Not great. Especially as with 6 hours on the ground on board at PHL they could have mobilised a relief crew...

Oh well. He's home. We're on Fire Island. That's all that matters. S**t happens.

Well. Imagine our surprise at coming back to the UK today and seeing a letter from Crawley.

A fantastically worded apology accompanied by 35k miles.

Which I think, on the basis that it was ultimately weather related is impressive service recovery.

But - what means more that the miles is - WE DIDN'T WRITE IN... This is EXCEPTIONAL customer service.

Thanks Virgin.

We will both now suspend our boycott of soft white cheese.

Now that is quite impressive--that they compensated you for weather, and as you said, even more impressive, that they wrote to you without you writing in. Excellent VS!