re: Delta flight delayed for 8 hours, cops called!

Stay on a plane that is turning into thunderdome.

Vs

Bus back to the terminal to watch CNN for 8 hours.

quote:

---

Jeez people are pussies. I didn’t eat or drink for 8 hours at work yesterday


Lets see you do it for free

---

Not even, let's see you pay $500 to do it.

I feel for the passengers.

Being stuck for 8 hours with small children in an airport was one of the worst vacation experiences I ever had. If I’d been on the plane that long instead of returned to the terminal after sitting on the runway, I don’t know how much worse it would have been.


As far as complaints about how the passengers acted, I chalk it up to lack of communication by the flight crew, either intentionally or unintentionally.

Standard procedure for a flight crew seems to be lying to the passengers and saying something will be fixed in a few minutes, regardless of whether the problem is some sort of equipment malfunction that can be fixed quick or a flight crew’s clock running out and the airline has to scramble to find another available one.

You sit anywhere long enough waiting because you have been told something willl be “a few minutes” and tempers eventually flare when that few minutes becomes a few hours.

There is zero acceptable reason for this to ever happen and airlines need to be made to suffer badly when it does.

Take the damn plane back to a gate and let the passengers off.

quote:

---

While sitting on a tarmac for 8 hrs sounds like hell, I'd choose that over spending a night in jail. It's not even close.

---

A night in jail isn’t THAT bad.

8 hours on a grounded plane IS that bad.

quote:

---

rather spend a night in jail than sit on the tarmac for 8 hrs. It’s not even close.

---

Spoken like someone who's never spent a night in jail.

Uh, I would much rather spend a night in jail than 8 hours on a tarmac. Get a good night sleep and some bug juice.

The problem with the night in jail is the charges and legal issues which come after.

There are specific rules airlines have to follow in these situations as contained in the FAA regulations. It’s called the Flyers Bill of Rights or Travelers Bill of Rights. I can’t remember.

Came about after some Senator got stuck on a plane and the airline didn’t give a shite that he was a Senator.

They have to give you an option to deplane after two or three hours. In this case, they did offer the passengers a bus ride back to the terminal and these folks didn’t take it. Which is a tough call a couple of hours in knowing you aren’t going to be getting back on a flight that night.

Bad situation all around but a few notes.

Flight was delayed 2 hours at the gate so take those 8 hours on the tarmac and cut that down to 6. Boarding started 4:45pm via bus to a remote stand, doors closed 5:45pm.

Water and snacks offered after 2 hours with the option to deplane by bus back to the terminal. Tough call not knowing if you took the bus back to the terminal if you could get back on the flight. Ground crew was ready to push back at 9:40pm, but the police arrived at 10:26pm after the phone calls which likely added an extra 45 minutes to the delay.

JFK has been bad for weather delays recently due to the re-finishing of runway 4R/22L from March until mid-November. Once that's done it should help, hopefully no more construction plans on other runways once this is complete. Now if only they could finish LGA...

They bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, let'em crash.