JetBlue Flight Pilot Pleaded for Help During Tarmac Ordeal

[RamboLiberal]

The pilot of a JetBlue plane stuck on the tarmac for seven hours full of increasingly angry and frustrated passengers pleaded for assistance from airport officials, telling them he "can't seem to get any help from our own company."

"I got a problem here on the airplane, I'm gonna need to have the cops on board," the pilot said, according to cockpit recordings posted on LiveATC.net. "There's a cop car sitting in front of me right here right now. I need some air stairs brought over here and the cops brought onboard the airplane.

"Look, you know we can't seem to get any help from our own company, I apologize for this, but is there any way you can get a tug and a tow bar out here to us and get us towed somewhere to a gate or something," he said. "I don't care. Take us anywhere."

-----

Between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., a paraplegic man began to complain of intense pain. According to passengers near him, he had not been moved for leg circulation or been taken to the bathroom since before boarding the plane in Florida.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/jetblue-flight-pilot-pleaded-tarmac-ordeal/story?id=14845299

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. This is obscene.

Why didn't the airline react?

If I'd been a passenger on that flight, I would have raised holy hell. Probably via cell phone.

I feel for that pilot.

[EFerrari]

2. How is this not unlawful detention or something?

These airlines have gotten away with this crap for YEARS now.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. It sure sounds like that to me.

[Downwinder]

3. Sort of like Charley on the MTA.

[grasswire]

6. the man who never returned. n/t

[pipi_k]

22. Wonder if his wife is still handing him sandwiches n/t

[Poll_Blind]

5. I feel really sorry for the pilot and those passengers. I know people usually think of....

...the pilot as having ultimate control over the aircraft but stuck on the ground like that, in a lot of ways, they're just as helpless as the passengers. Terrible situation. I don't know what was up with the pilot's fuel warning to the passengers. I'm not upset that he shared that information with them- if I was in a jet running low on fuel I'd sure as shit want to know about it...at least so I could scribble out a farewell note as some passengers on doomed flights have been able to do...but I don't get how he misread the fuel level. That probably kicked it over into epic plane ride from hell mode and I'm sure it was unintentional. Still...whew. What a shitty day!

PB

[msongs]

7. coulda opened the emergency doors and chutes to evacuate nt

[Ilsa]

8. I thought there was a law passed about this a couple of years ago

that makes it unlawful to detain people like this.

The idea of it scares me.

[trumad]

9. its the 3 hour law and they broke it.

[piratefish08]

10. laws are there for people people. not corporate people. new rules.

[laundry_queen]

23. I think this is their business plan

it's cheaper for them to very occasionally pay fines than to have to employ a larger amount of employees daily to make sure this never happens. So they build these 'fines' into their cost of doing business. It's absoulutely disgusting. There needs to be additional punitive damages awarded to the passengers in amounts that damage the airlines. It has to be a large enough amount that no airline can simply build the cost into their business plan.

[Atman]

11. PEOPLE, LISTEN PLEASE!

This was NOT just a case of a shitty airline incident! These stories keep failing to report that the plane. -- and apparently several others -- were stuck in the October blizzard we had up here. The airport lost power twice during the incident, and literally millions spent a 20 degree night last night still without power. Initial reports mentioned this, how the plane became stuck in the snow which was falling too fast to remove, how there were no gates open because so many planes were grounded, how they couldn't move the air stairs, but all of that seems to be now lost in the JB bashing. I don't give a rats ass for Jet Blue, and I've no doubt that the passengers -- and the pilot -- had a terrible experience. But put it in perspective...this was not just some shitty-service story. CT is still in a state of emergency in some places, and this flight had the bad luck of being just about out of fuel and unable to circle JFK anymore before it was diverted to Hartford, which had not yet shut down.

[trumad]

12. that is not what I read

They had multiple occassions where the could have wheeled stairs to the passengers which they finally dd. I agree it wasn't the fault of Jet Blue.... but the airport....oh yeah.

[Atman]

13. You're right, it's probably not what you read. That was my point.

The stories that are circulating aren't mentioning how bad it was up here. The snow started falling heavily, near white-out conditions, at about 1:00 pm and accumulated rapidly. They talk as if all someone had to do was wheel some stairs out...through a foot of ice, snow and slush. Then what? You just don't understand how bad this storm was. I've lived up here for many years, and it was as nasty as it gets, and I'm just not willing to blame this guy or that for a situation that was dangerous and dynamic just to make a sensational anti-airline story.

[trumad]

14. This is what I read

A sports writer who I admire and who was on the plane.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-dolphins/fl-andrew-carter-stuck-on-plane-1031-20111030,0,4484704.story

[Atman]

15. An account from a Miami sports writer inside the plane.

Meanwhile, I live here and this was being reported on as it happened, by news crews at the airport covering the storm and many stranded flights and the chaos caused by the storm. I was one of the fortunate few who never lost power, and only partial cable -- still had basic and Internet, so live coverage was about all we watched. That guy gives an interesting first-hand account about what was happening inside the plane, but couldn't have know about everything going on outside, and the magnitude of what he was involved in. Thanks for the link.

[jeff47]

18. So...your claim is because of TV, you know better than a guy who experienced it.

.....uh-huh.

[Atman]

24. That's a stupid comment.

It isn't what I said. When you are stuck INSIDE the airplane, how does that give you any knowledge about how and why you are stuck? So the guy was able to relate his first-hand experiences with the other passengers. Meanwhile, I was living the storm outside the plane, experiencing the power outages, seeing the damage and how fast the snow was building up, watching cars slide off the road, etc, etc. In the meantime, the problems at Bradley were being covered on the news, something the guy inside the plane could not possibly have been aware of.

.

[jeff47]

28. If it isn't what you said, why did you launch into a defense of saying it?

Apparently his plane didn't have windows, since he could see how fast the snow was building up. And since cars were sliding off the road, it was impossible to drive a set of stairs up to one airplane. At a place which has equipment to clear an entire runway, they couldn't clear a path for a single 4-wheel-drive truck to bring a set of stairs. And a passenger would have no idea that there's problems at the airport when he's sitting on the tarmac experiencing them.

None of your excuses add up to a 7 hour wait.

[trumad]

21. roll the fucking stairs up

And get the people off the plane. How hard is that?

[Atman]

25. It was hard to roll up anything in the kind of snow we had.

How hard is that? Are you actually from Miami, or did you just get the story from the Miami paper? Because no one who has dealt with storms like this and the heavy, wet slush and snow would ask such a silly question.

[rdking647]

26. IT DOESNT TAKE MUCH TO MOVE PEOPLE FROM THE PLANE TO THE TERMINAL

its not like they were busing them 20 miles... It was a couple hundred yards at most..
There is no excuse for this.. None..

[riderinthestorm]

27. Chicagoan here and I'm asking the question.

Sorry but the airport crew is VERY experienced at moving snow.

I don't understand how the airport couldn't manage to clear enough of a path to push one empty plane away from a gate, clear a path for the loaded plane to get to that gate so the passengers could deplane. This isn't like they are clearing miles of runway, at most they are clearing a few hundred feet - enough for the planes to be minimally shifted.

We do have these kinds of snowstorms in Chicago and I have no idea why they couldn't have moved just enough snow to have shifted a couple of planes in SEVEN hours!

[PavePusher]

32. You don't even need to move the planes, just stairs and passenger busses. n/t

[Atman]

36. This is Connecticut in October, not Chicago in winter.

This went way beyond the airports. We don't usually get snow storms like this in the dead of winter, let alone before Halloween. Crews weren't ready, equipment wasn't ready...and shit happened. I'm glad the armchair managers have it all figured out. Too bad you didn't call and offer your expertise beforehand.

[notadmblnd]

50. I was thinking that too

Do people sit in airplanes on the tarmac all winter long? So it snowed at the end of October not the middle of November. Snow falling a couple of weeks early throws airports off that much? Why wasn't the airport prepared? Did they not know an early winter storm was coming?

[jeff47]

29. I'm from upstate NY.

We get blizzards like that every year. So I'm well aware of what is possible in such conditions.

Getting a set of air stairs to the plane to offload the passengers would not be difficult, especially at a place with enough snow-clearing equipment to clear a runway. The danger would be snow and ice building up on the stairs themselves while getting the passengers off...which could be handled by 1-2 people with shovels.

Once the passengers are off the plane, they could easily use their feet to walk to the stairs that would get them into the terminal with minimal to no snow clearing required.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

43. I used to live in Connecticut

It snowed every winter.

Surely Bradley airport has snow clearing equipment.

[Mojorabbit]

33. I landed in Alaska

in the 70's in driving snow. They managed to get the ladder to the plane and then we walked.. or more like stumbled thru the snow to the terminal.
I was stranded for three hours during a snow storm in NC several years ago and having claustrophobia, almost lost it. Finally they dragged out some stairs and let us walk to the terminal. I never want to go through that again. They turned the ac off and the plane was unbearably hot and stuffy.
I don't buy that they could not have done the same in this situation.

[Atman]

39. I landed in Atlanta in the 80's in near zero weather...they shut down the airport.

Too cold. Workers couldn't work, planes couldn't be de-iced. Wasn't even snowing, just too damned cold. Yet, at Bradley, in October, everyone was supposed to be prepared. Hell, I barely managed to get gas and windshield wiper fluid. I gotcha.

[trumad]

37. No Orlando

but I'll bet you that I've lived in colder states than you have.

You do know that they finally did roll the stairs in.

[Atman]

44. Whoa! Kudos for the best pissing match ever!

I grew up in Florida. I live in CT now. I snowboarded Sugarbush at -6 last season, real temp, not wind chill (-35). You're my hero. Not.

[PavePusher]

53. -6 F? Hahahahha, amateur stuff.

I worked the snow-making crew at Bolton Valley for a season after dropping out of college. Hauling snow guns by hand on 12-hour night shifts, 6 days a week December-March. Double-digits below zero F, 30-50 mph winds, high-pressure air and water hoses....

[Cannikin]

52. It may not have been easy, but it was not impossible, especially in 7 hours.

Cars sliding off roads is not quite the same as a truck driving across a tarmac.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

49. Your experience and wisdom speak volumes. I hope others see the reality

[TheMadMonk]

51. Do it quick. Do it dirty. Deploy the chutes and suggest that if the airport...

...doesn't want footage of several dozen inadequately dressed people in the middle of a taxiway on the 6 o'clock news, a bus (with chains) would be welcome, oh I don't know, about an hour ago.

What this was about, is the same as every other time this happens. No one wants to go to the expense of rescreening passengers.

Fine the airline. Fine the airport.

And if it really was so overwhealmed that it could not respond. SHUT THAT FUCKING AIRPORT YESTERDAY. Because it has absolutely zero chance of responding adequately to a real emergency.

[seabeyond]

19. and still... 7 hours is too long with all the issues. no reason for 7 hours. even with snow

chaos and a number of issues.

[FarCenter]

20. Bradley was a poor choice of airport for diversion

TF Greene in Providence or Logan in Boston would have been farther from the storm track and Logan is probably better equipped.

Coming from the south, Philly or BWI would be better choices.

Jet Blue seemed to suffer the most from diversions to Bradley, four IIRC, although there was also an American flight from Paris that got stuck on the tarmac for hours at Bradley.

Possibly Jet Blue maintains less reserve fuel for diversion than others?

[PavePusher]

31. Airports have snowplows.

Line up a plow, stairs-truck and a bus or three. Proceed to plane. Download passengers and crew to busses, return to terminal.

[Atman]

34. Reply to you and everyone upthread...

Check in if you actually live here. Otherwise, STFU. This was/is a major storm. It wasn't just snow. I had to drive into Hartford today, from my place 30 miles out from the center of the storm, and the area is still mayhem. Unless you were/are here and saw how serious this storm was, you have no business giving shit to me, a person who watched it happen. It'd be like me telling tornado or hurricane victims to just suck it up 'cuz it's just a little wind.

Oh, wait...we dealt with a tornado and a hurricane this year, too. But I guess you guys know better. You read about it in a Miami newspaper while trees were falling on my house.

[PavePusher]

41. I'm originally from the North-East (New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont)...

and I've been in the US Air Force for 21 years... in Aircraft Maintenance, on the flightline. In ice storms (we played hockey on the aircraft ramp in North Carolina for three days), hurricanes (stationed in Florida for almost three years), snow, winds, etc. So I know a bit about driving in various levels/conditions of snow, and airfields. There is no excuse for letting people sit in a plane on the taxiway, within sight of the terminal, for almost 8 hours.

Had it been me, I'd have called 911, told them we were being illegally detained and that in 15 minutes I was going to pop an emergency slide and start hunting for a bus and a plow.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

45. I not only used to live in Connecticut, I currently live in Minneapolis and grew up there

That's like getting a Ph.D. in snow.

If the airport officials knew that passengers were stranded, getting them off should have been a priority. Send a plow (they surely have one), roll up some airstairs, and get the passengers into the terminal.

According to the newspaper article, McDonald's was open, so there would have been food and water and bathrooms for the passengers.

[blueamy66]

56. My Dad worked for AA in Buffalo

Never had this crap happen. They always managed to get the stairs to the plane.

And I'm guessing Buffalo's snowstorms were as bad, or worse, as CT's was. Buy an effing snowplow CT.

I'd sue the shit outta the airport. 7 hours on a plane without food, water and restrooms? BS! I'd open the door and jump.

[WinkyDink]

16. Edited upon reading thread. OK, then: WHY was this plane diverted to THIS airport?

Was not Newark less of a white-out? (I live to the east of Newark.)

[Atman]

17. It was the closest "big" airport that was still open.

Newark and JFK had already been closed (or were reporting "infrastructure problems," according to the news). Bradley is an "International" airport, and at least seven other flights, including flights from Paris, were forced to land here, and there was just no place to put the planes. In the case of the JB flight, it had already been circling JFK for too long and was low on fuel. Florida people (I'm actually one of them, from Cocoa Beach) often don't realize how small the states are up here. We can literally drive to six states in one day. By plane, Hartford and New York are very close together, and anything further west was getting hammered, too.

BTW, Bradley is a small airport, and the terminals shut down all services at 9:00 pm, so by the time the people got off the plane there was no food service opened for them, the roads were already closed and the in-airport hotel was full. It's only an "international" airport because there are direct flights to Canada, and one flight to Amsterdam. I can remember not that long ago when it was still called Bradley Field. But it's got the runways and gates to handle big planes, so that probably entered into the decision to divert the planes there.

[RamboLiberal]

30. Stranded On The Tarmac: Another Fiasco At Bradley

The change in management of Bradley International Airport from the state to the new Connecticut Airport Authority cannot happen soon enough. Maybe the new authority can figure out how to deal humanely with passengers stranded at the airport.

That didn't happen Saturday, when passengers in at least four planes sat on the tarmac for up to seven hours. That had to be a miserable entombment made worse by a lack of food, water or working bathrooms much of the time. "We ran out of water,'' said a journalist on one of the flights via cellphone. "The bathrooms are all clogged up and disgusting. The power would go off every 45 minutes or so for five minutes or so, and that would freak people out."

Airport spokesman John Wallace said Bradley took 23 diverted flights on Saturday, which stretched resources to the limit. "Bradley attempted to accommodate 1,000 to 1,500 passengers who were stranded here Saturday night into Sunday with cots, blankets, food and water … and remained open during the storm." Mr. Wallace did not address the question of why people had to spend seven hours sitting in a plane on the tarmac.

Yes, the airport got the planes down safely in worsening weather, and that is the first consideration. But there was no way to get people off the plane for seven hours?

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-ed-bradley-fiasco-20111101,0,3079142.story

[Atman]

35. That editorial said nothing. The picture spoke a thousand words.

Do you want to take the parapalegic guy off the plane, down the stairs in this? Your granny? You want to take off or land? This was a major fucking storm, at a time when no one was prepared for it. I have half my family staying with me tonight because they, like much of the state, are still without power because of this storm...but I guess you guys who read the Miami paper know better.

[trumad]

38. Give it up dude.

You act like you're the only one to ever survive a snow storm.

Yeah---if the paraplegic is losing circulation to his legs you bet I want him off. What a dumb thing to say.

[Atman]

40. How is the weather in Miami?

Give it up dude. There is still a state of emergency up here. But of course, I only live here. I'm sure you know more about our situation than you do.

:eyes:

[trumad]

42. I don't live in Miami.. I've lived in Buffalo, Kansas City, Michigan,

and have trained in snow that makes your storm look like a drizzle.

There were a dozen different ways to get those people off the plane....and guess what they finally did. Stairs and buses...hours later.

[Atman]

46. So you live in Orlando.

You're my hero. Not.

You should have sent in the troops to rescue the passengers.
.

[trumad]

55. you've become quite silly in this debate.

Sorry it had to happen.

[lapislzi]

65. I live about 65 miles to the west of you.

I am just one person. How is it that I managed to follow the increasingly ominous weather reports all day Friday, fill my car up Friday evening, stock up on paraffin and emergency candles, cook a stew that could be reheated on the woodstove, bring 8 hods of wood into the house, buy driveway salt, fill the bathtubs and containers with potable water, and park my car on the grass where there were no trees Saturday morning? The snow arrived as predicted, on time, and in the quantities forecast by the experts.

As expected, I lost power. As expected, roads were impassable and trees came down. This was a surprise to exactly NO ONE in my area. Just because it was October, doesn't mean we don't know what snow looks like. This one came a little earlier than usual, and was a little more severe than we might have anticipated at this time of year. But we all have our procedures in place.

My husband was stranded in Allentown when they shut down the interstate...and he watched literally dozens of bucket trucks passing from at least seven states. This wasn't a tornado that dropped from the sky with 10 minutes' warning.

If you were unprepared, you were not paying attention. I assume that an "international" airport would have sophisticated weather equipment, and backup plans for addressing emergencies. There is no excuse for putting passengers through that level of discomfort and risk to health.

[2banon]

47. what is the point in holding passengers hostage? I have never understood this. Explain please..nt

[kickysnana]

48. I took a poll two years ago about flying while disabled..

They asked if I had anything I wanted them to know and I told them after the incidents I saw 1999-2000 you have to be desperate or crazy to fly while disabled because airlines will kill you and blame it on you.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

54. JetBlue could face up to $27,000 fine PER passenger.

Possibly $5 million, according to CNN just now.

[Loge23]

57. Jetblue has significant operational issues

I realize that Jetblue has many fans - their seats, clad in leather, are somewhat more comfortable than many others and their in-flight electronics (TV & SAT radio) are a nice diversion. They even allow one checked no cost bag per passenger.
However, their customer service is abysmal and getting worse as their operational issues become more and more suspect.
The pilot of the latest service disaster on Saturday night acknowledges that "we can't seem to get help from our own company".
I was at JFK on Saturday, arriving at 11am, for a scheduled 1:45pm flight. For the next eight (8) to nine (9) hours, we watched the departure/boarding time be adjusted further hourly and heard several announcements about our plane being "on the way". I know, it was snowing an unprecedented October amount - I get that. My outrage is directed at Jetblue for consistently either lying to us or simply not being in control of their own operations. At some point, well before eight hours, they had to know that they could not get a plane to JFK to service this flight. They deliberately ran out the clock before finally stating the obvious - that the flight was cancelled - thereby allowing their customer to rebook the flight without penalty. They cannot control the weather, as the poorly trained supervisor rudely informed me on Sunday; but they most certainly can control the response and they miserably failed in that regard this weekend.
After the brief "this flight is cancelled" announcement Saturday evening, hundreds of customers were left wandering the airport either trying to find a safe haven for the night or alternate transportation. No assistance of any kind was offered. I immediately called their reservation desk to rebook for Sunday, and that little bit of self-help set up the next failure by Jetblue. I made my way down to the baggage claim to inquire as to where our checked bags would be delivered. No one in the baggage claim room knew! There were six people working in this office, dozens of cancelled flights, and no one knew what become of the luggage!!
Finally, after yet another hour, we were procedurally informed in the their best apparatchik manner that if we had already rebooked our flights, we would not be given access to our bags!! So, without a change of clothes and our toiletries (which we all know can't be carried on) we were left to our own devices to wait out the rescheduled Sunday afternoon flight. Our bags, we were assured, were in a "secure facility" and would be automatically loaded onto our rescheduled flight. Yeah, sure.
Upon arriving for our Sunday afternoon flight, we immediately inquired about our bags. After a brief check on his computer, the clerk informed us that our bags would indeed be on our flight. A half-hour later we received a call from our destination (and home) city informing us that they would like to deliver our bags that were left at the airport to our home!! What was the clerk doing on his computer - playing solitaire?? On Sunday, our 2:50pm flight finally departed at 4:40pm. The terminal personnel by this time were surly and thoroughly unskilled in providing even the most basic level of acceptable customer service. I do commend the flight crew for at least trying. No wonder they freak out and take the chute out of service with this company! I would too!

[Atman]

58. It wasn't just Jet Blue!

Several flights were diverted to CT because of this storm. There was no place to put them. The Jet Blue flight was just one of them. Today, Tuesday morning, still a million people without power up here! It looks like a war zone up here. You people who think you know everything KNOW NOTHING. This was not an ordinary snow storm, and this was not an issue with just this one JB flight.

[Atman]

59. MSNBC doing story on this now.

Why is no one on this thread bitching about the American Airlines flight which also sat on the Tarmac for seven hours? The gist of the story was more about the breakdown of the systems at Bradley due to the storm, and not Jet Blue. As I've tried to make clear, this was one hell of a storm, and the airport -- like many up here in October -- was not prepared for a storm of such magnitude. Not apologizing for them, I just find it almost comical that people from Orlando are telling those of us who actually experienced the storm what we should have done.

[Loge23]

60. I stand by my comments

Does being from Orlando(which I am not, btw)somehow disqualify us from commenting on Jetblue's poor performance during this storm? Are these problems to be understood only by Northerners?
Didn't we also "experience" the storm??
Muffing the response is the gist of my complaint - not the storm nor the unpredictable nature of such.
Any competent firm - particularly an airline that is subject to these unplanned occurrences - should have a operational plan in how to deal with these issues; at least a basic understanding of customer service should also be present. Neither was found in Jetblue's MO on Saturday.

[Atman]

61. You shouldn't stand by your comments, because it wasn't Jet Blue.

I guess you didn't fully read my post. The MSNBC story also spoke of the other stranded plans which I have mentioned several times in this thread, but no one wants to acknowledge. It's too tempting to hate on Jet Blue instead, but what the MSNBC story was pointing out is that investigators are looking at the management of Bradley International for having inadequate staff and being unprepared. Kind of shoots a hole in your "It was Jet Blue's fault" thing. After all, I'm not sure what any pilot or even airline could have done...rev the engines and just pull 'er up to a gate (even though they were all full?) Open the doors and have people jump down into the snow, causing an illegal breach of security by having civilians running around on the tarmac (not to mention the safety issues of the deep snow and the 30mph winds). I'm just not sure what you expected them to do.

[trumad]

62. No it wasn't jet blue

It was Bradley and their mismanagement of the situation.

[Atman]

63. Just me being silly, trumad.

Peace. :hi:

[trumad]

64. You to bud.

BTW: 72 here in Orlando :P