United 777 w/MEL'd APU Makes Headlines

[Cardinal]

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4123227

Passengers broil, boil in sweltering jet
By Jeffrey Leib
Denver Post Staff Writer

As more than 200 Denver- bound United Airlines passengers waited to board Flight 909 from Chicago on Monday, it became apparent that something was wrong.
The Boeing 777, parked at the gate at O'Hare International Airport, was extremely hot. As in 115 degrees. The plane's auxiliary power unit, which generates electricity when engines are shut down at the gate, was broken. That killed the air conditioning and triggered a five-hour ordeal for passengers and crew.
All other flights to Denver were booked. United tried to find a replacement plane, but none was available.
United officials had a dilemma: Figure out how to cool the plane in near 100-degree heat, then board the passengers and send them to Denver; or buy them hotel rooms in Chicago.
They chose the first option.
"I couldn't breathe; I thought I was going to faint," said passenger Sandy Ball, in seat 37C.
The plane was due to leave at 2:45 p.m.
Maintenance workers first tried to pump cool air into the empty plane at the gate. That didn't work. Then the crew started one engine, called for a push back and drove the plane away to get the temperature to a bearable level. That helped.
About 6:30 p.m., the big jet reappeared at the terminal and a growing gaggle of United officials told remaining travelers they would be boarding. The cabin still was hot, but once an engine was started, the temperature would drop.
By 7, all were on board, and the door closed. It was hot in the cabin, probably in the low 90s. Officials said they had extra water and juice, but instead of a bottle of water on each seat, there was a blanket.
Passengers waited for the engine start - and waited some more. The body heat of hundreds of people was lifting the temperature.
Captain Michael Glawe gave an ultimatum to United officials: Get air hooked up for the start in one minute or empty the plane. He was worried about heatstroke in the cabin.
"I was right on the verge of getting everybody off the airplane," he said Tuesday. "The plane was so heat-soaked that it was going to be warm until we got to altitude."
Passengers began to use cellphones to call for help. Finally the engine was started.
Ball was at her breaking point by then.
"I was going to stand up and scream," she said. "They endangered our lives putting us on that plane."
One frustrated flight attendant told passengers to call United's headquarters, "otherwise it will never change."
The plane took off at 8. Within an hour, it was so cool in the cabin that many passengers were grabbing the blankets.
As the jet landed in Denver, a flight attendant begged people to give United another chance. She said, "This has been a very embarrassing and unprofessional situation." "Our crew did the best job they could to get that plane cooled as quickly as possible," United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said Tuesday. "We're extremely sorry."

Guess these folks have never flown around New Mexico for a few days with no apu, no ground air, and deferred air conditiong....Hmpph.

 

[TrafficInSight]

"they endangered our lives putting us on that plane."

Are you kidding me?

 

[AirBadger]

"they endangered our lives putting us on that plane."

Are you kidding me?

It's not that far a stretch. 115 degrees in the cabin, thats fuggin ridiculous. Imagine being trapped with 199 other passengers in that tube with that kind of heat. The captain was worried enough about heatstroke.

 

[BoilerUP]

We refused an airplane yesterday that was 40C in the cabin and climbing. Our packs worked, but were well on their way to being frozen up and couldn't control the cabin temp. The cockpit was even warmer...

It is quite dangerous for pax to be that hot, especially with the elderly or those with respiratory problems. Its a HUGE liability for a company if they can't keep their planes cool on the ground...

 

[Amish RakeFight]

I'd be pretty upset too. Why couldn't a GPU provide the AC?

 

[trip]

That sounds like a normal day flying the bro around socal, with an APU!

 

[AWACoff]

Definitely no joke. I returned to the gate just last week with a medical emergency due to the cabin being too hot. My passenger was okay in the end but I was unwilling to risk her life for on time performance.

"they endangered our lives putting us on that plane."

Are you kidding me?

 

[check6]

Sounds like your everyday average PDT Dash-8

 

[MJG]

I'd be pretty upset too. Why couldn't a GPU provide the AC?

GPU is for electricity only, no air, for that you need an air conditioning unit, you know those big yellow hoses you see hooked up to the bottom of aircraft.

This IS a serious problem. At times like this I wish the CEO and CFO and every other alphabet offficial of said airlines would have to endure the whole ordeal back in the cabin with the rest of the coach customers.

I feel for this captain, I've been in the same position before, though not with 200 passengers. There is NOTHING you can say over that PA to make the situation better. When people get that hot, including me, they get mad and their patience is long gone.

Our company back in the prop days was notorious for MEL'ing the VCM on our 1900's, that's the main air conditioning unit on the Beech 1900, the ACM is sort of the "pack" on that airplane but is useless when it gets this hot. So if the VCM was on MEL you would roast before takeoff. It got so bad one summer that I went out and bought a digital thermometer with a sensor that could be strung back into the cabin. I once saw 97 degrees F while holding short of the runway. That's totally unacceptable. I wanted physical proof to show the FEDs when I refused an airplane for a MEL'd VCM and caught hell from the CPO, yes it happend to some, not me though.

At least the Captain did the right thing. I personally worry more about being sued by an angry group of passengers and an overzealous lawyer these days than I do about facing disciplinary action from my company.

I have been praying all week not to see the APU MEL'd on my paperwork, this week especially would not be fun to deal with. There is no way to keep the cabin cool while you start the engine off of an air start cart. As soon as the flow of cool air stops coming in from the air conditioning unit, it starts to get hot, and your life as an airline crew member starts to suck. I suppose that we could have them keep the AC hooked up unitl after we started, we have rear fuse mounted engines so this might be possible, probably wouldn't work with a Boeing or Airbus.

 

[TrafficInSight]

I initially read low 90's, disregard.

 

[sayagain?]

Sounds like your everyday average PDT Dash-8

Boy, isn't that the truth. Actually, got to ride on one today out of LGA and it actually wasn't bad in the cabin. I was planning for the worse.

 

[Say Again Over]

Well in general the high temps are a little harder to deal with in the Midwest due to the higher humidity, but just try flying out of Phoenix on one of those frigging RJ's, they taxi out on one engine and there is no airflow to passengers until after takeoff, have complained to AWA many times to no avail. :angryfire

 

[Dangerkitty]

"they endangered our lives putting us on that plane."

Are you kidding me?

When I was at Continental Express we averaged one death a year in IAH from heat related issues in the cabin. The elderly were usually the victims. It can and does happen.

 

[NuGuy]

Sounds like your everyday average PDT Dash-8

You guys still driving the birds around with no eyeball vent in the cockpit? The early models (906HA, 907HA, etc) had three small floor vents that did a great job of keeping a 1 sq in patch of the floor plate cool.

Then, inexplicably, there were the 91XHA-92XHA that only had ONE of these floor vents. Man, BBQ city in CLT or TPA.

Finally the 93XHA, 94XHA and 97XHA birds had the eyeball vents, which, on a moderate day, could keep up with the heat.

The -200s were all much better, but they were all down in FLA when I was there. Nice rides...climb was much better...meaning you could scoot up in the summer time instead of inching up.

Nu

 

[LRvsH25B]

Airline Red tape is amazing. Always someone wanting to show someone else they are in charge. Sounds like the captain was a squared away guy, but the airline gets directly involved in a situation the should let those involved handle, but that would make too much sense.

Get the stairs out
Pull the plane away from the gate
Start the RH Engine
Open the Bleeds and cold soak the cabin
Get 4 or 5 buses
Bring the folks out, put them on the buses and board them on the LH side
Shut the door and be on your way

Is it really that difficult? It might cost 5K to do that, but would it be worth not having the bad press they are getting now? I'd say so

 

[wt219200]

Airline Red tape is amazing. Always someone wanting to show someone else they are in charge. Sounds like the captain was a squared away guy, but the airline gets directly involved in a situation the should let those involved handle, but that would make too much sense.

Get the stairs out
Pull the plane away from the gate
Start the RH Engine
Open the Bleeds and cold soak the cabin
Get 4 or 5 buses
Bring the folks out, put them on the buses and board them on the LH side
Shut the door and be on your way

Is it really that difficult? It might cost 5K to do that, but would it be worth not having the bad press they are getting now? I'd say so

You really suggest they do all that? The flights might be leaving a little late. Where was the ground air hook up? I work the ramp in LAS which gets a little hotter than back east. It was 105 today and it seemed cool. We do get some complaints that it is too hot but the ground air seems to do the job. Other than the above suggestion; which seems a little far fetched, what does anybody suggest?

 

[ksu_aviator]

T' Hell with Procedures!

Well in general the high temps are a little harder to deal with in the Midwest due to the higher humidity, but just try flying out of Phoenix on one of those frigging RJ's, they taxi out on one engine and there is no airflow to passengers until after takeoff, have complained to AWA many times to no avail. :angryfire

Quit complaining and start doing. Something regional pilots don't seem to get is that the PIC has final authority as to the operation of the aircraft. If it is too hot, and potentially dangerous to the passengers, use the second engine, do whatever you have to to get the aircraft cool.

Company rules are guidelines. It is your responsibility to make judgements for the safety of the flight. I know it isn't fun to go against company rules because you'll get a bunch of crap for it. However, that is what your union is for. They should back any captain that uses any means necessary to prevent injury or death of passengers.

I don't mean to rag on the original poster, or regional pilots in general, I just think a point needs to be made. Regionals preach procedures as if if you break procedures you'll be sent to a place worse than hell. To make matters worse, so many regional pilots never truely acted as PIC of an aircraft carrying passengers prior to working for the regional. They just don't have the experience to recognize the sneakily unsafe situations.

Sometimes procedures are not in the best interest of the situation. So when your cabin is so hot that you think you should be paying them for the sauna treatment, start up the other engine.

Just some friendly advice.

BTW..Do you recognize this quote?

"The captain was asked why she closed the throttles prior to touchdown, as the airplane was slow on the approach. She reported that she closed the throttles because it was company procedure to close the throttles at 50 feet."

It is from an NTSB report if that is any help

 

[MJG]

Airline Red tape is amazing. Always someone wanting to show someone else they are in charge. Sounds like the captain was a squared away guy, but the airline gets directly involved in a situation the should let those involved handle, but that would make too much sense.

Get the stairs out
Pull the plane away from the gate
Start the RH Engine
Open the Bleeds and cold soak the cabin
Get 4 or 5 buses
Bring the folks out, put them on the buses and board them on the LH side
Shut the door and be on your way

Is it really that difficult? It might cost 5K to do that, but would it be worth not having the bad press they are getting now? I'd say so

Unfortunately it really IS that difficult. What you suggest sounds great but in reality is not possible. First off you just can't "get the stairs out" or "pull the plane away from the gate" at a place like O'Hare. A 777 sitting in the middle of United's alley would create gridlock, that happens from time to time there anyway and it is not pretty. You could start the engine but in those kinds of temperatures you're not going to get the cabin to an acceptable temperature by just using the packs off of one engine running at idle while sitting on the ground. Also good luck at a place like ORD getting 4-5 busses on short notice. Anything already at the airport for any other purpose would be busy with whatever it's doing at the time, not like they will just stop moving other passengers back and forth and come to the rescue of one poor UAL 777. Finally if you want to see the Feds have a cow, try boarding a 777 through airstairs, in the middle of the ramp at one of the busiest airports in the world, with the other engine, the one that is the same size as a 737 fuselage, running the whole time.

 

[Motive Flow]

Getting 4-5 busses? Yeah, that's gonna happen. Don't know about DEN, but in IAD you're lucky to get a wheelchair within 45 minutes of arriving at the gate (after calling for it when in-range, on the ground, at the gate, etc., etc.).

Thinking outside the box is great (even us dirty, rotten, under-qualified regional PIC's do it sometimes ), but you usually just end up banging your head against the wall that is Airline Operations.

 

[Full of Foehn]

GPU is for electricity only, no air, for that you need an air conditioning unit, you know those big yellow hoses you see hooked up to the bottom of aircraft. This IS a serious problem.

I curious to know why airliners/RJs are engineered that way. The plane I fly, albeit much smaller, is capable of having a GPU engergize the air conditioner; the vapor cooling cycle system as it is called, runs on electricity as do the blowers. Do the airliners lack a/c because the volume of air in the cabin would require too many units or too big a cooling unit to make it practical? Certainly, this is not the problem with the RJs. Is it a weight saving measure? Thanks in advance.

FoF