Originally Posted by Dr Dave

BA also have an A380 stuck at Hong Kong at the moment with a >24 hour delay (I think this is G-XLEE). Is BA suffering significant reliability issues with the A380 fleet? For a small fleet there seems to be a surprising number of issues.

Originally Posted by stewaran

although as you say from pilot at the nose, to crew at the back all checked out

Originally Posted by Swanhunter

No, it's discretionary.

Originally Posted by CanuckFan

And possibly the reason that only flight crew were sent to hospital. One passenger reporting that it would cost $800 to visit hospital. That their health insurance had expired and British Airways would not (could not?) pay.

http://globalnews.ca/video/3025099/i...t-in-vancouver


http://globalnews.ca/video/3026014/m...anding-at-yvr/

Originally Posted by MSPeconomist

AFAIK passengers aren't allowed to be on a commercial aircraft unless there are some minimum number of FAs in case an emergency evacuation would be needed for instance. I would guess that this is a FAA rule, although I suspect there's a similar European regulation. (Maybe related or maybe OT, I've observed KLM FAs instruct passengers sitting on board to UNfasten all seat belts when the aircraft is being fueled at the gate, in case we would have needed to leave the aircraft quickly.)

Originally Posted by sdix

Was recently on a domestic SEA-ANC flight (US) and diverted to Vancouver. Since almost no one had passports with them and those with Green Cards didn't have the new Visa that's required for Canada we were kept in a specific holding area for a few hours until a new aircraft came from SEA. I suspect that in this case there was some discretion involved given the circumstances and given that nobody was actually trying to enter Canada with a DUI or other felony.

Originally Posted by Swampz64

Everyone is entitled to feel afraid especially when the unusual happens on a plane. The Captain summonsed the senior cabin crew member to the flight deck and the plane changed direction. After a few minutes service stopped and everything was taken away. The Captain came on and said due to a minor issue with the plane some cabin crew had been taken ill and we were diverting to Calgary eta 45 mins. There was certainly no panic or outward concern upstairs. After a while the Captain came back on and said we were going to Vancouver as they were better able to handle the logistics around an A380.

Originally Posted by YYZFlyboy

This stinks of some kind of crew industrial action of the worst kind.
- Basically ONLY crew affected (all crew!!)
- Reports are they all grabbed their bags and walked off the flight
- None of them were admitted to hospital - all checked and sent packing
- Saw images of a large group of crew members strolling into the hospital with their bags like they were going into a terminal
- Passengers were left on the plane watching all the crew being taken away on a bus!
- Passengers were basically told nothing and abandoned by the crew.

This stinks of something really bad and I hope they get to the bottom of it. Not just the dereliction of duty but what if something had happened on the plane when the crew abandoned it? 400+ passengers left to fend for themselves! BA should be absolutely ashamed, heads should roll!

Originally Posted by CDTraveler

Had an unpleasant experience with YVR and IRROPs that might answer your question.

We were on CX flight from YVR to SFO that was supposed to leave about 6 pm. 6 came and went and we sat there. About 90 minutes later it was announced that 2 FA's had not shown up and we were waiting for replacements. Another 2 hours later they still had not shown up and pax started demanding to get off the plane. Eventually a uniformed office of some sort came on board and announced that as the Canadian immigration staff had left for the night, under no circumstances could we be allowed back into the airport.

Around 11 pm the 2 replacement FA's arrived, and then there was another issue as those 2 were fresh out of training (literally this was going to be their first working flight) and there weren't enough senior staff on board. Eventually some CX official in a distant office authorized them to work sans sufficient senior staff.

So 6 hours late, the pilot fires up the engines and something went wrong. I have no idea what; we were just told that that plane was not flying that night. The airport dude comes back on the plane and says the pax are still not allowed back into Canada as technically having cleared US customs we weren't in Canada anymore.

Finally at 1:30 am they rounded up enough police to form a barrier of sorts and the pax were herded directly onto another plane with cops making sure nobody made a break for it. It was a very bizarre situation considering that the pax on the plane had been in Vancouver prior to boarding the flight, or at least allowed in the airport long enough to connect.

So if a plane makes an emergency landing or goes mechanical or has whatever crisis you can dream up, it seems the staff at YVR are quite likely to leave you sitting on the plane. One article linked above seemed to say that the pax sat for quite a while before being allowed off the plane. (maybe YVR was calling in immigration staff?)