By Ben Mutzabaugh
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Thursday, March 1, 2007
"No flight fared worse in that storm than UA907," the Tribune writes. "The Boeing 757 languished on the tarmac for seven hours before the pilots finally canceled the flight. It took another agonizing hour to get the plane back to the gate, where exhausted and frustrated passengers stumbled off the jet after midnight."
"What is striking," the Tribune adds, "is that United's marathon flight to nowhere occurred as the airline industry pledged to take better care of grounded passengers after a Feb. 14 storm left JetBlue Airways passengers stranded on planes at New York's [JFK] International Airport for up to 10 hours."
So, what led to the delay? Apparently, an aircraft change on the O'Hare-to-San Francisco flight meant switching to a smaller jet, which meant some first-class passengers had to be bumped to coach. Then, the time it took to resolve the complaints of the downgraded fliers meant "the difference between [the flight] leaving before a snow-and-ice storm raked O'Hare and getting caught in the mess that ensued," the Tribune says.
United tells the paper that it is trying to call all 181 passengers on board Flight 907 to apologize. It is also offering travel vouchers of up to $500. Though the Tribune writes that customers on board "remained calm," it adds that "to passengers, the experience was torture because every time departure seemed possible, the plane would need to be de-iced again."
David Castelveter -– a spokesman for the airline trade group Air Transport Association –- tells the Tribune that such events "are extremely rare situations" despite all the recent media attention on the topic. As for United, it says only 25 of the 140,000 flights it's flown since Dec. 1 were delayed by more than three hours. As for Flight 907, United spokeswoman Jean Medina tells the Tribune: "Our aim is to get our passengers to their destinations safely, and we apologize for the length of time one of our flights was on hold with passengers on board."
Yet another 8-hour flight delay snares fliers
There's been another report of a long tarmac delay -– this time an "8-hour ordeal" on United Airlines, the Chicago Tribune (free registration) reports. The paper tells of an incident from Saturday at O'Hare International that occurred as the season's latest winter storm blew through Chicago and the Midwest."No flight fared worse in that storm than UA907," the Tribune writes. "The Boeing 757 languished on the tarmac for seven hours before the pilots finally canceled the flight. It took another agonizing hour to get the plane back to the gate, where exhausted and frustrated passengers stumbled off the jet after midnight."
"What is striking," the Tribune adds, "is that United's marathon flight to nowhere occurred as the airline industry pledged to take better care of grounded passengers after a Feb. 14 storm left JetBlue Airways passengers stranded on planes at New York's [JFK] International Airport for up to 10 hours."
So, what led to the delay? Apparently, an aircraft change on the O'Hare-to-San Francisco flight meant switching to a smaller jet, which meant some first-class passengers had to be bumped to coach. Then, the time it took to resolve the complaints of the downgraded fliers meant "the difference between [the flight] leaving before a snow-and-ice storm raked O'Hare and getting caught in the mess that ensued," the Tribune says.
United tells the paper that it is trying to call all 181 passengers on board Flight 907 to apologize. It is also offering travel vouchers of up to $500. Though the Tribune writes that customers on board "remained calm," it adds that "to passengers, the experience was torture because every time departure seemed possible, the plane would need to be de-iced again."
David Castelveter -– a spokesman for the airline trade group Air Transport Association –- tells the Tribune that such events "are extremely rare situations" despite all the recent media attention on the topic. As for United, it says only 25 of the 140,000 flights it's flown since Dec. 1 were delayed by more than three hours. As for Flight 907, United spokeswoman Jean Medina tells the Tribune: "Our aim is to get our passengers to their destinations safely, and we apologize for the length of time one of our flights was on hold with passengers on board."
Posted at 03:23 PM/ET, Mar 01, 2007 in Plane news (Airbus, Boeing, etc.), Storm delays and cancellations | Permalink | Comments (8) TrackBack (0)
