Hey folks.
Topic of discussion for today. Any of you here had any funny, outrageous or wierd delays, cancellations or problems with your flights?
Worst thing I ever had was getting stranded at Palma Majorca after the aicraft I was meant to be going home on left without me.
It was the first revenue flight for Air-Scotland.com.
I won the tickets in a competition on their website. But they only told me 3 days prior to departure. With me having zip money I aksed if it would be possible to return with the aircraft the same day. They Said it was fine and infact, thats what their managemnt were going to be doing.
The Day came, we landing at Palma and I was hearded off the aircraft with all the res of the pax and that was it. No one at the airport (a bunch of lathargic Spaniards!) had heard of Air-Scotland and there was no check in desk for them.
After 3 hours of racing around asking hear, asking there I resigned to staying there overnight with nothing more that £70 in my pocket.
I eventually got an easyJet flight to Luton then onward to Glasgow with the help of an aunt and her credit card.
I was mad at Air-Scotland for a while, but then, they has only just started and hic-ups will happen. I was just the unlucky one.
So I have the dubious honour of being their first complaint and first inconvenienced passenger 😀 :rolleyes:
My Gran gets all the fun though. 4 years in a row she flew over from Germany to visit.
Out of the 4 flights, 3 had problems.
1st one BA 737-200, Dusseldorf-Birmingham-Edinburgh, On Approach to BHX the Nose gear failed to extend and resulted in a fly past to allow a visual inspection by the tower, then a climb to 10,000 feet and a *jiggling* of the controls to coax the gear down, which worked. Landing was then uneventfull, but chased by the BHX fire tenders.
2nd Flight, same route, same aircraft one year later.
On Taxi to active at BHX, bound for EDI, right engine gave up the ghost with a spurt of flame and thick black smoke (Grandmothers description). They changed planes and flew to EDI later (gotta love BA’s fleet redundancy, they were only 30 mins late into EDI)
3rd flight, circa 1999. Heavy, HEAVY winds at EDI. PLane came in on approach, wobbled about all over the place, executed Missed approach and diverted to Newcastle as Glasgow had even stronger winds that night.
some people get all the fun…. LOL!
By: RIPConcorde - 19th April 2004 at 22:39
A 3 hour delay last year with Flyjet trying to do MAN-HER.
No reason was given, but I presumeed it was because they had to source an aircraft, or to put it differently they had no aircraft to operate the flight.
In the end we were put on a Finnair B752 OH-LBS, operating for Air Scandic who were operating for Flyjet! 🙂 To put the icing on the cake there was no food for the whole flight except those pitiful little rolls you get normally with the hot meal.
By: starjet - 19th April 2004 at 22:32
Once had a delay on El Al- and a 12-hour flight to boot- my flight from Tel Aviv-Bangkok was delayed by 4 hours. I really had to go. I wouldn’t have seen this without the delay. So this is what happened:
I went to the bathroom half an hour into the delay. I opened the door to a stall, figuring no one was in there because feet weren’t showing. Whoops! There was a man-erm-you get it. I rushed into another stall, did my stuff, washed, went out, and laughed.
By: Jeanske_SN - 1st April 2004 at 19:12
Originally posted by Hand87_5
I have already posted this story but …SABENA big time!!
My wife was coming back from Brussels to ORY.
I was waiting for her at the airport.
In the mean time her flight has been cancelled (no announcement) and after hours of waiting she could take an other flight to CDG.
At Sabena “so-called-information-service) I had been told that she was in an hotel at Brussels.The cherry on the cake : They lost her luggage which was delivered 2 weeks later.
They went under but with such a customer service , I’m not surprised.
I hadn’t much experiences with SN but this one was for sure the last one.
Ye, they payd too much attention for the little things and forgot to optimize the basic things a customer really needs.
By: andrewm - 1st April 2004 at 19:06
Delays on return flights are the best 😀 free expansion to holiday!
By: Hand87_5 - 1st April 2004 at 17:50
I think that flying put a lot of people in a very stressful situation.
I feel this way too. What the basic passenger expects is an UNEVENTFUL flight.
In case of problem , each human reactes with is own personnality.
From the very best to the worst.
But in a way I agree , I hate PA bullsh*t.
By: greekdude1 - 1st April 2004 at 17:46
Originally posted by wysiwyg
It amazes me how passengers b1tch about things when you find a fault.
Typical airline passenger will bitch about almost anything. It really annoys me sometimes. Especially when the people at the butt-end of of the matter, have absolutely no control of the situation. People have no idea how to channel their frustration. Rather than go ballistic at the customer service rep or the flight attendant, they need to go to the airlines’ website and send a very professional, yet firm email. I used to do this, and get vouchers and whatnot as a result.
By: Bmused55 - 1st April 2004 at 14:56
Originally posted by wysiwyg
I never ever tell the passengers lies about a delay as it will always come back and bite you. I will however not necessarily supply all the information IF I believe that the typical passenger will not understand it or misinterpret it. Passengers seem to think that we enjoy being delayed but that couldn’t be further from the truth. If there is a technical fault with the aeroplane you can be damn sure that if it affects the safety of the operation then the flightcrew will not take it. It amazes me how passengers b1tch about things when you find a fault. A few weeks ago I found a leaking actuator for the tilt mechanism on our starboard bogey. This actuator puts the bogey into the classic tilted position prior to retraction. There was a pool of hydraulic fluid underneath on the apron at Las Palmas. I called the skipper and the engineers who fixed the problem after a delay of about 45 minutes. When the passengers boarded you wouldn’t believe the comments we received. Would they really like us to depart on an aircraft with a leaking undercarriage leg??? Would they prefer me to have kept quiet and then had a possible retraction problem that would have caused a return to LPA and a CONSIDERABLY longer delay?
They’ll complain if you delay to fix a problem and they’ll complain you fixed the problem.
No win scenario!
Just like that bunch of prats refusing to re-board an MYT 757 after the Capt took it out to the runway (empty I may add) and tried to un jam the proximity sensor on the nose gear by taxying fast and breaking hard. Sensor was unjammed, plane re-boarded and left without the prats
By: paulc - 1st April 2004 at 14:50
Flying from Dallas to Chicago on an American DC10, this went tech and were rebooked onto a later flight a 757. Boarded this plane and sat towards the rear on the left and noticed a few people gathered around the over wing exit. Returned to looking out the window when ‘whooshh’ the over wing evac slide deployed – opps !! and as these take several hours to repack we all had to get off the plane to wait for the next flight.
The cause of this was that the 757 had been brought out from maintenance and a seat belt had been shut in the o/w exit. Obviously the passenger could not use it so a mechanic was called to free it and the only way this could be done was to open the door, unfortunately the slide mechanism had not been isolated and so it deployed.
Eventually got booked onto another American DC10 which after pushing back from the gate had to return because we still had groundstaff onboard.
By: wysiwyg - 1st April 2004 at 12:42
I never ever tell the passengers lies about a delay as it will always come back and bite you. I will however not necessarily supply all the information IF I believe that the typical passenger will not understand it or misinterpret it. Passengers seem to think that we enjoy being delayed but that couldn’t be further from the truth. If there is a technical fault with the aeroplane you can be damn sure that if it affects the safety of the operation then the flightcrew will not take it. It amazes me how passengers b1tch about things when you find a fault. A few weeks ago I found a leaking actuator for the tilt mechanism on our starboard bogey. This actuator puts the bogey into the classic tilted position prior to retraction. There was a pool of hydraulic fluid underneath on the apron at Las Palmas. I called the skipper and the engineers who fixed the problem after a delay of about 45 minutes. When the passengers boarded you wouldn’t believe the comments we received. Would they really like us to depart on an aircraft with a leaking undercarriage leg??? Would they prefer me to have kept quiet and then had a possible retraction problem that would have caused a return to LPA and a CONSIDERABLY longer delay?
Matthew – water in the fuel is an ongoing problem in aeroplanes. Light aircraft are usually kept with their fuel tanks full as this minimises the air quantity in the tank. When warmer air in a tank touches the cold sides (typically morning dew) it condenses on the inside and runs down into the fuel. The fuel is less dense than the water so the water sits at the bottom of the tank. The fuel is drawn off from the tank via a standpipe which means that the bottom bit of the tank (where the water sits) is unusable. If the water content gets too high you have obviously got a big problem. In commercial aircraft we very rarely have full tanks and fly through many temperature extremes so water can be a big problem. We also have the same problem occuring in fuel storage tanks prior to being pumped to the aircraft.
By: andrewm - 1st April 2004 at 12:06
wys,
What reasons have you told pax before and were any fibs to cover up some other reason?
What is the funniest thing that has happened to you on the flight deck as well.
By: Hand87_5 - 1st April 2004 at 08:08
I have already posted this story but …
SABENA big time!!
My wife was coming back from Brussels to ORY.
I was waiting for her at the airport.
In the mean time her flight has been cancelled (no announcement) and after hours of waiting she could take an other flight to CDG.
At Sabena “so-called-information-service) I had been told that she was in an hotel at Brussels.
The cherry on the cake : They lost her luggage which was delivered 2 weeks later.
They went under but with such a customer service , I’m not surprised.
I hadn’t much experiences with SN but this one was for sure the last one.
By: greekdude1 - 1st April 2004 at 07:59
I just remembered another goofy occassion. I was flying SQ from AMS-SIN on a 777. Captain comes on the PA after boarding was complete saying something along the lines of the flight being heavy and they needed use of a runway that apparantly was closed. He then said the 2 options were 1) requesting the air traffic to allow them to use the runway or 2) unload some cargo to lighten the load up a bit. Two hours later, we take off and were not told which of the 2 options came to pass.
By: Bmused55 - 31st March 2004 at 22:06
Originally posted by Britannia
Off the subject, Bmused55 is your avator the BA 747 that was at NCL http://www.airliners.net/open.file/290303/M/
To be honest I can’t remember, but that looks like a good match
By: Britannia - 31st March 2004 at 21:48
Off the subject, Bmused55 is your avator the BA 747 that was at NCL http://www.airliners.net/open.file/290303/M/
By: frankvw - 31st March 2004 at 20:30
So what, just rip it off before taking off 😀
By: Jeanske_SN - 31st March 2004 at 20:12
Ye if they break they get sucked into the engine, big chance. The wipers do improve visibility for approach, but they can move damn fast!
By: Bmused55 - 31st March 2004 at 20:07
Originally posted by wannabe pilot
Yep! And I’m sure they cant be all that useful either…..surely when a plane is flying into rain at a few hundred miles an hour those small window-wipers aren’t gonna do much??!
They’re not for use while inflight, jsut for when on approach.
Perhaps the Wiper arm was unsecure and “flapping” about. that could prove dangerous at cruise speed
By: wannabe pilot - 31st March 2004 at 19:38
Originally posted by Jeanske_SN
What a silly delay Dan:D.
Yep! And I’m sure they cant be all that useful either…..surely when a plane is flying into rain at a few hundred miles an hour those small window-wipers aren’t gonna do much??!
By: Jeanske_SN - 31st March 2004 at 19:28
What a silly delay Dan:D.
By: greekdude1 - 31st March 2004 at 18:31
One time I was flying Air Canada out of YUL, and the flight was delayed about an hour due to ‘catering problems.’
One time I was flying America West into LAS, and the plane ‘arrived’ just fine, but then we had to wait about an hour at the gate because the jetway wasn’t working properly, and they couldn’t find an airstair to unload us that way.
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March 31, 2004 at 11:01 am