AA 21 JFK-LAX: Return to gate because of one passenger too many on board
#16
Join Date: Apr 2001
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In 2006 or 2007 I was able to board an AA flight to Orlando I think from ORD, however I should have boarded at the nearby gate for the AA flight to Jacksonville. I didn't realize until I couldn't locate my bags and the nice lady at lost baggage told me my bags were safely where they belong, in Jacksonville. I forget now if I got miles for JAX or MCO trip??
I would think that AA would owe you a free ticket as it was their mistake (mostly)
#17
Join Date: Nov 2008
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Something similar happened on a flight from PSP to DFW three or four years ago. We were all seated and ready to go, door literally in the process of being closed, when one last pax came rushing on board. He had a BP for an aisle seat in FC, but there was a rather frail elderly gentleman already in that seat. The seated gentleman refused to budge, wouldn't even look at the late-boarding pax, just kept irritably waving him toward Y. I think he thought the other guy was trying to seat poach because he kept repeating over and over, "This is MY seat!"
Purser and another FA come over. Big scene ensues. The seated guy is being very obstinate and refusing to produce his BP. GA comes back on board, captain comes out of cockpit. Much confusion and consternation abounds. Finally turns out the older guy is in the right seat, just the wrong plane. His similarly timed flight to ORD is scheduled to depart from the adjacent gate. He gets escorted off the plane.
But now the group is wondering how the heck had his BP scanned okay when it clearly wasn't for the plane he got on. More commotion and running back and forth to the gate. Somebody eventually realizes there had been a gate change at some point earlier in the day, but the BP scanner hadn't been properly reprogrammed.
Once that was established, an announcement was made and FAs started going row by row to check BPs to see if anyone else was on the wrong plane.
Several more very upset- and confused-looking (mostly elderly) folk came up from Y and left the aircraft. I don't know if the first fellow or any of the others made it onto their correct flight that day, but our departure was delayed almost 45 minutes by all the fuss.
Purser and another FA come over. Big scene ensues. The seated guy is being very obstinate and refusing to produce his BP. GA comes back on board, captain comes out of cockpit. Much confusion and consternation abounds. Finally turns out the older guy is in the right seat, just the wrong plane. His similarly timed flight to ORD is scheduled to depart from the adjacent gate. He gets escorted off the plane.
But now the group is wondering how the heck had his BP scanned okay when it clearly wasn't for the plane he got on. More commotion and running back and forth to the gate. Somebody eventually realizes there had been a gate change at some point earlier in the day, but the BP scanner hadn't been properly reprogrammed.
Once that was established, an announcement was made and FAs started going row by row to check BPs to see if anyone else was on the wrong plane.
Several more very upset- and confused-looking (mostly elderly) folk came up from Y and left the aircraft. I don't know if the first fellow or any of the others made it onto their correct flight that day, but our departure was delayed almost 45 minutes by all the fuss.
#18
Join Date: Jul 2006
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I thought the days of erroneously boarding the wrong plane were long over. Apparently not!!
#19
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There was a time when Aeroflot would merely accommodate them in the lavs or wherever... But I have seen a rare startled passenger bolt upright as the destination was announced because someone hadn't been paying attention to BPs and the podium reader hadn't squawked. (The famous case was the LAX pax who was headed to OAK and awoke some time later - en route to AKL!)
#20
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I was hoping someone reading this thread with access could gather additional info from the inside and shed some more light.
Trying putting things together from memory, the pax who left belonged to a distinctive ethnic group by appearance and clothing, definitely not non-rev. There was a whole group in the back of the plan. I do not believe the ethnicity has anything to do with the story per se. My own speculation as valid as any other guesses , it was a stand-by passenger boarding by mistake or deliberately, and the second pax left with him, so not to leave him alone to either face the music or travel alone on the next flight.
I don't buy the story of a gate computer not working, since everybody boarded very early not last minute. There would have been plenty time of a head count. Probably we will never find out what happened, unless an insider spills the beans.
#22
Join Date: Nov 2011
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But the 6 year old child as a lap infant thing is a bit odd. Since it doesn't seem as if the 6 year old was one of the two to walk off.
#23
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Something tells me that no one snuck on like everyone is saying. Sounds like they just missed scanning a boarding pass, dropped that person's seat, accommodated a standby or nonrev passenger that were traveling together. The child on lap sounds like they were being nice and helping the chap that didn't have a seat. I blame the f/as for not catching this sooner.
#24
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: lax
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Something tells me that no one snuck on like everyone is saying. Sounds like they just missed scanning a boarding pass, dropped that person's seat, accommodated a standby or nonrev passenger that were traveling together. The child on lap sounds like they were being nice and helping the chap that didn't have a seat. I blame the f/as for not catching this sooner.
#25
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Arlington, TX USA
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Something tells me that no one snuck on like everyone is saying. Sounds like they just missed scanning a boarding pass, dropped that person's seat, accommodated a standby or nonrev passenger that were traveling together. The child on lap sounds like they were being nice and helping the chap that didn't have a seat. I blame the f/as for not catching this sooner.
#26
Join Date: Jan 2007
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Delete
Last edited by FlyHigh74; Feb 22, 2012 at 9:35 pm
#27
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The opposite can be as well - our PAA L-1011 flight SFO-LHR had several counts, even two where we disembarked and process back through the gate again. In the end, we had to recover our luggage and recheck, then back to the gate yet once again. But, a chap had checked a bag and disappeared before checking in at the gate (not as automated those days), and his bag was of great interest to the sniffer dog they brought in - we finally departed some hours late whilst the security folks dealt with it.
This was pre-9/11, and I was pretty happy we went through that dance.
Inaccurate passenger counts can be a problem both ways - on occasion, a GA may not be paying attention whilst the reader "misfires" as is likely in this case, and then we have a problem of having too many souls aboard and possible seat conflicts, etc.
This was pre-9/11, and I was pretty happy we went through that dance.
Inaccurate passenger counts can be a problem both ways - on occasion, a GA may not be paying attention whilst the reader "misfires" as is likely in this case, and then we have a problem of having too many souls aboard and possible seat conflicts, etc.
Having an inaccurate passenger count is a huge safety hazard. What happens if the plane crashes and the airline doesn't know exactly how many souls are on board? Think of what would have happened had the manifest for US1549 shown 148 instead of 150? Two people could have been missing and no one would have immediately known.
At the regionals, the CSA's passenger count must match the FA's pax count EXACTLY or the plane can not leave the gate. Quite frequently either a boarding pass doesn't get scanned or an F/A miscounts. We have to figure out what the problem is before the plane can leave the gate even if means taking a delay. I'm surprised that this isn't done at mainline.
On a more humorous note I've had F/As give a passenger count that reflected there being more passengers on the aircraft then there are seats on the aircraft and then tell me off when I asked them to recount.
At the regionals, the CSA's passenger count must match the FA's pax count EXACTLY or the plane can not leave the gate. Quite frequently either a boarding pass doesn't get scanned or an F/A miscounts. We have to figure out what the problem is before the plane can leave the gate even if means taking a delay. I'm surprised that this isn't done at mainline.
On a more humorous note I've had F/As give a passenger count that reflected there being more passengers on the aircraft then there are seats on the aircraft and then tell me off when I asked them to recount.
#28
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So true, just last week leaving CLE, a passenger headed to ORD got on the DFW flight. She did not realize she was on the wrong flight until she was trying to find her seat. I don't know why this does not get caught when scanning Bps.
#29
Join Date: Jan 2012
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Reporting a just very unusual occurrence on flight AA 21 2/15/12. Plane leaves gate on time. Halfway to the runway, the captain announces, " Unfortunately we have to return to the gate, because we have one too many passenger on board"
Nothing looks out of the ordinary, after getting to the gate very unhappy looking captain comes out of cockpit. Then GA comes on board and after huddling for 5 minutes with the crew, rushes all the way to the back of the aircraft, asking everybody to show boarding pass. Commotion ensues, I am too far away to see what was really going on. Two male passenger leave the plane and we are on the way again.
One fellow passenger surmised, that someone tried to bring a 6 year old child on board as a "lap infant". Unfortunately, it is impossible to verify that. The FA told me, when asked, that the computers went down during the boarding process, which I suppose is going to be the party line.
I highly doubt that, because five minutes before departure, a fellow passenger was handed a boarding pass to J.
Anyway to find out, what was the real story?
I am just wondering, with all the security and TSA, it is a bit scary, when someone not on the manifest can get on board.
Nothing looks out of the ordinary, after getting to the gate very unhappy looking captain comes out of cockpit. Then GA comes on board and after huddling for 5 minutes with the crew, rushes all the way to the back of the aircraft, asking everybody to show boarding pass. Commotion ensues, I am too far away to see what was really going on. Two male passenger leave the plane and we are on the way again.
One fellow passenger surmised, that someone tried to bring a 6 year old child on board as a "lap infant". Unfortunately, it is impossible to verify that. The FA told me, when asked, that the computers went down during the boarding process, which I suppose is going to be the party line.
I highly doubt that, because five minutes before departure, a fellow passenger was handed a boarding pass to J.
Anyway to find out, what was the real story?
I am just wondering, with all the security and TSA, it is a bit scary, when someone not on the manifest can get on board.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/boardi...1#.T0Lc6PEgd8s
#30
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Having an inaccurate passenger count is a huge safety hazard. What happens if the plane crashes and the airline doesn't know exactly how many souls are on board? Think of what would have happened had the manifest for US1549 shown 148 instead of 150? Two people could have been missing and no one would have immediately known.
At the regionals, the CSA's passenger count must match the FA's pax count EXACTLY or the plane can not leave the gate. Quite frequently either a boarding pass doesn't get scanned or an F/A miscounts. We have to figure out what the problem is before the plane can leave the gate even if means taking a delay. I'm surprised that this isn't done at mainline.