7 hour ground delay - Police board to calm pax?

Please forgive me if I've got this wrong but...

I've just seen a flash on ITV's 2230 news regarding Police having to board a VS plane after a "7 hour" delay due to a tech prob.

What's that all about?

Regards

John

Damnit... You just bet me to it... Been looking frantically on the net to see what the deal was!

John

Well if I'd been stuck in my seat for 7 hours due to tech I'd mutiny too ... but as with all these stories I guess the truth will out and things will become clearer ...

Tomorrow's Daily Mirror will feature...

"Trapped on Flight 63"

Just spotted it again on Sky News. Apparently Police had to board to prevent pax getting unruly.

John

[Darren Wheeler]

Estimated departure time is showing as 25th at 11:00

Yep, as usual GMTV are reporting it on breakfast TV.

[Neil]

Full story here from the Mirrors site

Neil:)

OMG What a PR disaster.

Sitting on an a/c from 9 till 4.30, no food, little water. Flight Cancelled.

As always the question is not why the delay - delays happen - but why cannot these delays be handled better and the passengers considered?

Phil FM

[fozzyo]

That is shocking!! Didn't someone think maybe, instead of getting the police involved, just let the passengers off the plane!

That is shocking!! Didn't someone think maybe, instead of getting the police involved, just let the passengers off the plane!

That would seem the most sensible option, but then VS would have to spend money on a jetbridge, stand etc.

VS.

[:0]

That is just plain awful.

[Bazz]

Well what an awful experience, seems like Murphy's Law was at work on this one. Feel particularly sorry for the Honeymooners, not much of a start for them; also for any families with kids on board must have been hell, hope the aircon was working!

Hmm this must have come in just around the time I finished work yesterday!

Mind you we sat on the tarmac at JFK in Feb 2003 for 6 hours as a snow storm blew in, we did evetually take off but only after two deicings!! Alot of unhappy people then espcially taking off in a snow storm!!

Claire

I do not believe all of the story. I know for a fact that the customers will have been given some type of food maybe not hot food but they will have been given something cold by law we have to also we will have given out water more than twice too again by law we have to. I would not believe the full story you know what the media us like.Remember the screaming crew memeber that the papers were saying she was shouting were going to die. That was also untrue. VS did not recieve any compliants about that from anyone. The onlything they recieved were letters saying what the papers had said was untrue. I know we dont handlw delayes very well sometimes but we do have a duty of care and we have guidlines we have to stick to. As for the customers being stuck onthe A/C if the crew and ground crew kept being told by the engineers that it was going to be fixed they why let people off to just spend another few hours boarding again.

The media reports are rubbish... its silly season on anything Aircraft related at the moment.

[Bazz]

Thanks for that VITB, unfortunately a lot of people will believe what has been reported and the damage will have been done; VAA's PR machine needs to go into overdrive to recover the situation.

It would be interesting to hear from a crew member and any pax that were on board.

Absolutely appauling.[V]

I know how I would feel if I were stuck on a plane going nowhere for that length of time. It's bad enough been stuck on a plane in flight for ages, you just want to get where your headed as quickly as possible.

I'm not sure I disbelieve the reports as they have been given so far but would be interested to hear interviews with the passengers who were actually on board with regard to food and particularly water. Unfortunately on my last flight, water runs were woefully lacking (required 'by law' or not!) so perhaps they were no better on the ground too. I certainly hope some meaningful offer of recompense is offered to the unfortunate passengers on that flight.

thelaceys

Whether what the media says is true or not, unless they make a retraction or apology etc. the damage to VS is going to be the same.[:(!]

VS.

As mentioned earlier, The crew on board can only act on the information they are being given from the Tech`s on the ground. It sounds to me like the crew had thier hands tied on this one. I agree it was an unfortunate and unpredictable set of events...it has happened before and will happen again.

They just had the timeline of this on CNN which had the anchors giggling. They summed it up by saying the passengers spent eight hours on the plane with two glasses of water and no food. However the reports of a 'near riot' are unfounded.

The VS logo was prominently displayed thoughout the piece. Im sorry but whoever made the decision not to abort this flight 3-4 hours earlier needs their backsides kicked.

[preiffer]

Interesting that you refer to both situations (food and water) as "by LAW, we have to give them", VITB. How about "our COMPANY POLICY is to hand them out more frequently than the law suggests"


That'd be the RIGHT thing to do, surely? (or are we only offering these things because we HAVE to? [:?])

Originally posted by V-Ben
its silly season on anything Aircraft related at the moment.

True...and it's a slow news day and it's a holiday weekend...and it's the big front page story on today's Evening Standard early afternoon edition.

Paul

I just saw the following on an evening standard newstand "Trapped on jet in 7 hours of hell". I agree that its the way things are handled that is important. Things break, mistakes happen and from time to time everyone gets things wrong. But you can always try to recover/resolve a situation.

G.

BBC News website has now picked this up here.

Isn't it about time there are some policies about when pax are out of hours. How long is it acceptable to sit on a plane on the tarmac. I appreciate that they were waiting for a part that could have arrived at any moment but at some point someone needs to see the PR issue looming and return the pax to the terminal.

Phil FM