BOS-DCA shuttle diverts to ALB to collect presidential daughters...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35602-2004Aug2.html

Wow, nice job twisting the facts of the article ...

Your topic should read "Diversions to pick up stranded passengers "not unusual"" I would say, since the quote US rep said nothing specifically about Albany or the Shuttle ...

If I had posted this I would have said that over 20 passengers were collected, incluidng the Presidential daughters and not make it sound like they were the only ones "collected".

So I guess the real question this article raises is has anyone else ever heard of a flight diverting to pick up straded passengers? One unusual thing about this one is that there were that many empty seats on the flight ... thats seems to be less and less common ...

Wow, nice job twisting the facts of the article ...

Your topic should read "Diversions to pick up stranded passengers "not unusual"" I would say, since the quote US rep said nothing specifically about Albany or the Shuttle ...

If I had posted this I would have said that over 20 passengers were collected, incluidng the Presidential daughters and not make it sound like they were the only ones "collected".

So I guess the real question this article raises is has anyone else ever heard of a flight diverting to pick up straded passengers? One unusual thing about this one is that there were that many empty seats on the flight ... thats seems to be less and less common ...

I have been on a couple of diverted flight from CLT-JAX. They often make a stop at HHH with the Dash-8 to drop off passengers when last flight to HHH gets cancelled. I was lucky enough those few times they I would have been stranged in CLT if US didn't make the divert to get me home. Thanks Piedmont.

Anybody but the Bush twins, they overnight everyone (the other 20 people).

While I've occasionally seen the "flag stop," it's usually for 50 or more people, or places with one flight per day. ALB has more than one flight/day.

Based on some folks (including US and wholly owned employees whom I've talked to lately) recounting of the number of pax that US puts up daily in hotels of late (notably due to the PSA staffing fiasco), I have no problem believing that this diversion was specifically and only due to the Bush twins.

I agree that it is not usual for this kind of stop to be made. I have been on 50-100 shuttle flights in the last year or so, and only one diversion or extra stop. It was a div due to snow and the div was to PHL. Wonder if they at least put the Bush's in F :)?

Twice also in my flying career there have been flights whwere they have pulled the jetway off, and they reattached the jetway to put me on. Once was due to a late inbound making a connection, and the other time they closed the door 10 minutes plus early and I had gotten some dinner and they reattached it, and put me on, but the flight still showed an "out" time earlier than scheduled :).

Wow, nice job twisting the facts of the article ...

Your topic should read "Diversions to pick up stranded passengers "not unusual"" I would say, since the quote US rep said nothing specifically about Albany or the Shuttle ...

If I had posted this I would have said that over 20 passengers were collected, incluidng the Presidential daughters and not make it sound like they were the only ones "collected".

So I guess the real question this article raises is has anyone else ever heard of a flight diverting to pick up straded passengers? One unusual thing about this one is that there were that many empty seats on the flight ... thats seems to be less and less common ...



Yes, but how many of the other 20 or so passengers were secret service protection? :D

Hopefully the daughters did not sit in F, with the family history of alcohol issues :o

usual or not, diverting the SHUTTLE?!?!

A shame those old bonuses about 'get you there on time or we give you the airline' are over.

Not so uncommon...

I have been the beneficiary of an unscheduled flag stop. The last PHL-DCA canceled and US had a PHL-CLT plane stop in DCA to avoid having about 20 of us overnight in PHL. We sure were glad to get home even though the CLT pax had their travels extended.

US really was in a damned if you do/ damned if you don't situation. Either way, bad press surely would result.

CWPFLY

Has anyone asked for the additional point-to-point airmiles for their inconvenience?? :D

I have flown the Shuttle something like 100 times in the last 3 years, and it has never once been diverted. Give me a break, like they'd ever do that for anyone other than American royalty.

Hopefully the daughters did not sit in F, with the family history of alcohol issues :o

Well Jenna was at Smith Point (a Georgetown bar) before the night was over so maybe she just needed a nightcap? ;)

When I was her age, about 95% of people have fake ids, and drank very regularly. I remember a campus cop would joke that there is more beer in the under class (under 21) dorms than in the dorm rooms of upper class students who were of legal drinking age. At any football game or Friday night, ambulances would be called to respond to alcohol poisoning, etc. Literally say at a football game, they might have had to take 5-10 people to the ER for alcohol poisoning. Depending how drunk the op was they would either take them home, take them to the campus health center, or take them to the ER if it seemed serious or if they lost consciousness. Usually the ER would just start an IV for a couple of hours, and then discharge the patient out of the ER. I've also heard that an IV or oxygen will help a hangover but I have not tried this yet.

But the Bush daughters are doing what 90% of kids there age do, and the media should grasp that, and say how America is picking on them because of their notoriety. Police departments largely have bigger fish to fry, and I have been told they tend to crack down on underage drinking when pressured by the community, but it is not what they want to be doing. Even my campus cops (a friend and I got to be friends with many of the officers) said they really don't care if kids want to party, and that usually it was the school administration that would pressure them to try to do something.

In all likelyhood if those two kids were Jane Doe's they would probably have confescated the fake ids and sent them on their way with a warning. Police departments are stretched and they don't want to do the extensive paperwork and court processes for something stupid like that. Another officer in a different location I know said basically the word came down from on high that they don't want cops in the street just making arrests because they can for say drinking in public because of the paperwork involved. This person told me the sarj would get "pist" if you brought evry person drinking to the station.

I would write a headline like:
Bush Daughters Picked On For Doing What Evry Other College Student Does

On a similar note some reports are saying that Mrs. Kerry's comment to "shove it" humanizes her, and could actually help voters connect with her because she has the same annoyed reactions that anyone else might have, but if you or I tell someone to "shove it" nobody would care and it wouldn't make the news.

On a similar note some reports are saying that Mrs. Kerry's comment to "shove it" humanizes her, and could actually help voters connect with her because she has the same annoyed reactions that anyone else might have, but if you or I tell someone to "shove it" nobody would care and it wouldn't make the news.

Unless you tell a TSA goon to "shove it" -- that'll make the news... "Passenger Abuses Federal Agent; Terminal Evacuated!"

Well, I didn't work for US, but I can tell you that flagstops were not unheard of. Might have happened once every other month on a flight we launched for one reason or another. Sometimes to pick up more fuel when we couldn't lauch with a full load off of DCA's short runways...other times to pick up people who were stranded in another city with no seats out for several days.

While I'm not naive enough to think that the Bush twins' presence didn't at least partially factor into the decision to flagstop the flight, to say that was the only reason and that these things never happen is simply not true.

When I first heard the stories of the Bush twins getting liquored up in a Mexican restaurant in Texas, my reaction was the same (everyone of us did the same thing) - but then I thought "did they really think noone would recognize them and know they were underage?"

So my reaction was "idiots."

Note I have the same reaction anyone from USAirways has a quote in the media.