PAX stuck on jet 8 hrs no food, overflowing toilets

[AMFAMAN]

American expected the storms to hit between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., and then move out of the area. Instead, they started earlier and lingered into the night.

Well we outsourced the weathermen a few years ago to a firm in OKC, :down: otherwise they could of just watched the news around DFW which called for hit and miss thunderstorms during the day and severe stuff starting in the afternoon and going all through the night. Heck that forcast was out for several days in advance, and wasn't as bad as some weathermen in the area were predicting.

FYI...Thunderstorms are due at DFW this Friday and early Saturday, turning to a potential ice storm Saturday night and on into Sunday and Monday. Just in case no one warned the company of this new weather event.

 

[markkus757]

This episode was on NBC's Today show this morning. As a former AA employee, I'm embarrassed to say the least...

 

[Wretched Wrench]

After TWO WEEKS AA issues a statement, promising to apologize to passengers.

American officials admit something went wrong in Austin, and said it is reviewing what happened and will apologize to affected passengers.

http://www.nbc5i.com/travelgetaways/107235...fw&psp=news

Ahm proud to be part of merkin airlines. Yep, raht proud.

 

[Redbone]

http://blogs.usatoday.com/sky/2007/01/aa_8_hours.html

"American Airlines passengers flying from San Francisco to Dallas ended up being stuck on the same plane for 12 hours Friday. The flight was diverted to Austin and was then stuck on the tarmac for more than eight hours, according to The Dallas Morning News. The paper said the plane sat in Austin with "no food, dirty toilets and frustration levels rising."
"As for Flight 1348, the Dallas MOrning News writes that incident drew to a close after "the pilot took it upon himself to taxi the plane toward the terminal. Passengers were able to deplane at 9:04 p.m. -– after nearly 12 hours on the plane."

Out of curiousity, are the cockpit and cabin crew paid at the same rate as flying when the plane sits out on the ramp somewhere between touchdown and brakes parked?

Copycat AA...this is NW territory! We have this copywrited and we will sue!

Make up your own disaster stories. We have a long history of these kinds of "incidents".

 

[TWAnr]

Arrogant Airlines still has not learned from this PR debacle::

8-hour ordeal left fliers hungry, angry

Excerpts:

For more than eight hours, nearly 200 passengers sat in an American Airlines Boeing 757 jet on the tarmac in Midland, Texas. Their flight last month from Phoenix to Dallas had been diverted because of bad weather in the Dallas area.
The snacks ran out. Drinking water got scarce. Pizza was delivered, but only 50 to 70 slices, along with 30 bags of chips. The experience, five passengers aboard Flight 556 told USA TODAY, was inconvenient to some, nightmarish to others.

"I feel like I was hijacked or kidnapped because I couldn't get off the plane," says Dixie Lee Belmont, 65, of Sun City, Ariz. "You don't treat people like that."

Details of the April 24 incident began to emerge last week as passengers recounted the ordeal.

Passengers aboard Flight 556 say they were never told why they couldn't get off. As the hours passed, they say they were offered few updates about the flight's status.

"I'm a pretty easy person," says Mike Cunningham, 30, of Scottsdale, Ariz. "I don't really get too worked up about stuff. But after sitting there for awhile, it got pretty annoying. I think the biggest issue was it wasn't really communicated to us what was going on."

The Phoenix-Dallas hop normally takes about 2 hours, 20 minutes. By the time Flight 556 left Midland and landed in Dallas, passengers had been on the jet about 11 hours.

 

[IORFA]

I say let them pass legislation about this. Then all the squeaky wheels will get their grease. They all would have been in a Motel 6 in Midland TX bitching about how AA couldn't get them to DFW. Then the schedule for the following day would have really been screwed. All these additional people inconvenienced because a couple of complainers from SFO can't move on with their life. Stuff happens and airlines try their best to do what you wanted them to do. Which is to get them from point A to point B as safely and quickly as possible. Until we can control the weather, we can only wait it out and do our best.

 

[eolesen]

Arrogant Airlines still has not learned from this PR debacle::

This was a lot more understandable -- they diverted to MAF, and as I read it, there wasn't a widebody stair truck on the field.

Using a narrowbody truck on the 757 leaves a sizable drop from the doorsill, and they opted to play it safe. Can't blame them for that, although I'm sure some will still want to do so.

 

[FWAAA]

This was a lot more understandable -- they diverted to MAF, and as I read it, there wasn't a widebody stair truck on the field.

Using a narrowbody truck on the 757 leaves a sizable drop from the doorsill, and they opted to play it safe. Can't blame them for that, although I'm sure some will still want to do so.

Then AA should never have diverted to MAF. Should have diverted to a suitable airport; one with adequate ground equipment.

For the "AA can do no right" crowd, nothing is ever good enough. B)

 

[TWAnr]

For the "AA can do no right" crowd, nothing is ever good enough.

Surely they could have gotten more than 50-70 slices of pizza and 30 bags of chips for the almost 200 passengers who were stuck on that airplane for eleven hours.

 

[eolesen]

Then AA should never have diverted to MAF. Should have diverted to a suitable airport; one with adequate ground equipment.

In the old days, MAF had widebody stairs -- pretty much all the diversion stations within an hour of DFW had them. Problem was that they'd sit out in the elements and only get used once every 18 months or so.

Side note... when the storeroom at MAF was cleaned out in 1993 or 1994 after being downgraded to all-Eagle, we found an entire shipset of 747 main aisle rugs....