What would you do?

[Capt. X]

Stranded Plane Passenger Confronts Pilot

Posted Jun 27th 2007 1:19PM by http://www.aolvideoblog.com/bloggers/meredith-o-videologist-chief-of-staff

It seems like it's happening all the time recently: Passengers stranged on a plane waiting in line on a runway ... but this story is a little different.

After being stranded on a plane at Kennedy Airport for four hours on June 21, Delta Flight 5637 passenger David Ollila -- who happens to work V.I.O., Inc., a company that manufactures small helmet-style camcorders -- stormed to the cockpit to confront the pilot, demanding to know why the passengers weren't being allowed off the plane and filming the whole exchange. Eventually, the pilot even admits that it's an untenable situation; the passengers were ultimately allowed off the plane and the flight was cancelled.

What would you have done?
http://www.aolvideoblog.com/bloggers/meredith-o-videologist-chief-of-staff

 

[TWheat61]

Stranded Plane Passenger Confronts Pilot

Posted Jun 27th 2007 1:19PM by

It seems like it's happening all the time recently: Passengers stranged on a plane waiting in line on a runway ... but this story is a little different.

After being stranded on a plane at Kennedy Airport for four hours on June 21, Delta Flight 5637 passenger David Ollila -- who happens to work V.I.O., Inc., a company that manufactures small helmet-style camcorders -- stormed to the cockpit to confront the pilot, demanding to know why the passengers weren't being allowed off the plane and filming the whole exchange. Eventually, the pilot even admits that it's an untenable situation; the passengers were ultimately allowed off the plane and the flight was cancelled.

What would you have done?
http://www.aolvideoblog.com/bloggers/meredith-o-videologist-chief-of-staff

He doesn't just work for VIO, he's the President of the company. He obviously did this to market his product. What a piece of work!

 

[30West]

Freight Rocks!

 

[pgcfii2002]

What Would Jesus Do?

 

[GuppyWN]

I'd point my leetle friend at him to remind him of his options.

Gup

 

[tico]

I'd point my leetle friend at him to remind him of his options.

Gup

Amen to that Gup. I would do the same.

 

[Sam Snead]

I'd point my leetle friend at him to remind him of his options.

Gup

Now THAT would be a news story.

 

[Balut]

He doesn't just work for VIO, he's the President of the company. He obviously did this to market his product. What a piece of work!

Market his product? Gimme a break...

 

[Huggyu2]

Crush his skull with the crash axe.

 

[brokeflyer]

kick him in the ding ding and if i manage not t kill him for an attempted take over id send his to jail.....

 

[capt. megadeth]

I'd shut the door and go back to my US Weekly.

 

[Juan Tugo]

Why in the world was the door open and why in the world did that conversation get past "Is that camera on?"

 

[linecheck]

The captain should sue for defamation.

 

[ableone]

I think that this guy had a ligit beef. Being stranded on the airplane in the summer without AC is not acceptable, especially if some people were getting sick.

At one point the pilot said that he had no power to do anything about the situation.

I have never worked for Comair so I don't know how much room to maneuver a captain has there. At my carrier our manual states that the cabin temp has to be 90F or lower. This fact would give me all the leverage I would need to resolve the situation.

If this guy had nothing in his flight ops manual to fall back on, which may or may not be the case, he had one other option. Obviously something was MEL'd, the APU, a pack something. Most pilots tend to forget that, technically, it is up to the PIC to determine weather or not a given MEL is acceptable for the current conditions.

This is of course an area with shades of grey. It would depend on how strong your union is and what the culture of the flight ops department was like. A pilot may, or may not, have been able to survive a decision to return to the ramp and reject the aircraft.

Any Comair guys out there?

 

[stknrdr]

Wow, at some point common sense has to come into play. There's going to be Press one way or the other in circumstances like that so we Captains might as well stand up and "command" and hope for some recognition that's positive out of a "damned if you do..." situation.

We shouldnt wait for that to be us, and should be proactive in having a decision in mind and recommendations to the company already submitted for the day this monster rears it's head. We've all thought about what we'd do in a 9/11 situation; we should be considering other career/life threats equally as often.
Props to the guys for not losing their cool...

Man I don't miss the bus.

 

[FlyinGuy]

Too bad one of them was not a FFDO...That would have been an interesting film clip!

 

[HalinTexas]

I'd point my leetle friend at him to remind him of his options.

Gup

What good would showing him your penis do?

Mine ain't so "leetle" either. Won't scare anyone, but it might make the ladies faint.

 

[captainv]

Here's the deal:

When the flight boarded, the crew expected to get right out. They told the pax the APU/air conditioning was inop, but it would be a short delay. Apparently the weather moved in and they never left the gate. Cockpit door was open because the boarding door was open. At some point, a teenager got sick and vomited in the cabin. Paramedics were called and responded. The captain called Ops to deplane, but was told the ramp was closed for weather and that he couldn't. The captain said he might deplane anyway. Ops responded that the Port Authority would hold the captain responsible for that. They deplaned after 3.5 hours when the crew timed out.

As for the cabin conditions, ASA has a policy letting the crew refuse and aircraft if the cabin temp is too high (30 or 35 C, i believe). Comair does not, and in a company publication, the chief pilots have clearly stated a deferred APU is uncomfortable, not unsafe, and you will be in for a fight if you try to refuse the aircraft.

The big thing I'd fault the crew on is boarding without external a/c. Even a huffer cart would give you some air flow.

 

[regionalcap]

Here's the deal:

When the flight boarded, the crew expected to get right out. They told the pax the APU/air conditioning was inop, but it would be a short delay. Apparently the weather moved in and they never left the gate. Cockpit door was open because the boarding door was open. At some point, a teenager got sick and vomited in the cabin. Paramedics were called and responded. The captain called Ops to deplane, but was told the ramp was closed for weather and that he couldn't. The captain said he might deplane anyway. Ops responded that the Port Authority would hold the captain responsible for that. They deplaned after 3.5 hours when the crew timed out.

As for the cabin conditions, ASA has a policy letting the crew refuse and aircraft if the cabin temp is too high (30 or 35 C, i believe). Comair does not, and in a company publication, the chief pilots have clearly stated a deferred APU is uncomfortable, not unsafe, and you will be in for a fight if you try to refuse the aircraft.

The big thing I'd fault the crew on is boarding without external a/c. Even a huffer cart would give you some air flow.

Can you use a huffer cart for a/c at comair? We are not allowed to do that at ASA anymore. I think it is because the huffer cart will overheat.

 

[captainv]

Can you use a huffer cart for a/c at comair? We are not allowed to do that at ASA anymore. I think it is because the huffer cart will overheat.

It's rare to find an external a/c cart, so I take what I can get. We used on a few days ago, but then we made sure we weren't on the ground very long. I've never heard that we're banned from using it.

UPDATE: the crew at JFK DID have external a/c when boarding. at some point, ramp workers removed it. perhaps they needed it for an aircraft that had been given a release time....

 

[TWheat61]

Market his product? Gimme a break...

He got what he wanted...Free Publicity!

 

[Balut]

He got what he wanted...Free Publicity!

Uh, maybe he just wanted off the plane. No wait, I'm sure you are right. I bet there are tons of folks who saw the clip rushing to buy one of his cameras. Once again, gimme a break...