Scrooge McDuck

From France 24:

Looks like another great service from Ryainair.

jefri68

Exactly what service is the airline supposed to provide when you refuse to get off the plane?

Altaflyer

Could they not have landed at CDG or ORY for an additional landing fee? I suspect the ceapo airline balked at paying such a fee and hence landed where they did. Lucky they didn't pick a field somewhere.

I have vowed never to fly this "airline".

SF_trotter

You're right. "Service" would have been getting passengers to their destination on time. Or if there's a delay, at least to somewhere that's not 350km away.

Xandrios

Well Ryanair did provide bus transfers, although it seems it took several hours for those busses to arrive.

Even the crew left, that is quite bad. Where did the crew go? I am pretty sure they dont have things arranged at that airport either. Did they take a cab to France? :P

I am curious as well which captain would leave his aircraft alone with a mob of angry Frenchmen :-X

jefri68

Oh, BELIEVE ME< I would LOVE to get 100% of this story and find out exactly 1) WHY the aircraft took off 3 hours late 2) WHY INDEED did the original airport in France close (one early version said that the flight from Morocco "arrived too late after the French airport already closed") and was it TRULY weather related on either end? 3) Where were the OTHER THREE flights coming from that did, apparently amicably depart from Belgium and bus to Paris,

BUT, for some reason, the Euro journalists aren't doing due diligence and following up on the story (at least in English).

I DO stand by my original post, though: The passengers CHOSE to get huffy and stay on the plane. Not sure why they'd be shocked that the crew had better things to do than to get abused...

Scrooge McDuck

Ok folks, here is another quote (sorry, only in German) from DER SPIEGEL:

.

Quick translation: The plane landed shortly before midnight in Liege. "That is not acceptable", passenger Mylčne Netange said. "Without telling the passangers, the plane landed in Liege and not in Beauvais".

Honstely, what kind of a service is it to:

B747-437B

The departure airport in Fez had a 3-hour ground hold due to VIP movements (visit by the King of Morocco) that shut down all civilian air traffic. Beauvais Airport was closed for arrivals at the new arrival time due to poor visibility as a result of fog.

With regards to the discussion why CDG/ORY were not selected as diversion airports, it really isn't always that simple. Both those airports are congested by day, which means that even though they may have been able to accept an arrival at 2330hrs (assuming that they were also not fogged out) they have no spare capacity to permit repatriation to base during the daytime once the crew had minimum rested and BVA was reopened. That would mean the aircraft stuck at CDG/ORY till the low traffic period the next night and result in the cancellation of an entire days flight program at BVA for that aircraft and thus inconvenience to even more passengers.

No airline, not even Ryanair, wants to dump passengers somewhere inconvenient just for ..... and giggles. Liege was undoubtedly chosen because the recovery plan from there was the most feasible, both in terms of arranging ground support as well as subsequently repatriating the passengers and aircraft. The plan worked for 3/4 of their passengers diverted that night. That leads me to conclude that the problem lies with the passengers on board this flight rather than with Ryanair.

B747-437B

As a point of information, the only "locks" on 737 restroom doors are basic latches that can be opened from either inside or outside. There is no ability to secure a restroom closed for controlled access. Any passenger could simply unlatch and open the restroom doors.

Ryanair (and most other airlines) policy is to latch restroom doors closed during descent as part of secure cabin compliance checks. I would wager that it wasn't a case of the restrooms being actively "locked" punitively against the passengers but rather a case of them simply not being opened after landing. This would be in accordance with SOPs.

zkzkz

I'm sure it's more complicated than just looking at the map and picking the closest airport. But Liege isn't the closest, or the second closest, or even the *third* closest airport. It's halfway across Europe.

There's only one property Liege has that these other airports don't -- Ryanair operations. They put passengers who had paid for a plane flight on a 4 hour bus ride so they could save the $$$ they would have had to pay someone to deal with them.

-- as pointed out subsequently I had Liege mixed up with Charleroi, Ryanair doesn't have operations in Liege

B747-437B

Ryanair doesn't have operations at Liege. So much for that theory. And just as an FYI, the cost of chartering multiple buses from Liege to Paris is significantly in excess of the landing fees at CDG/ORY.

SF_trotter

Incorrect.

I hope you're not getting your "facts" from Ryan Air press releases.

The plane landed in Liege at 11:30pm. The Beauvais airport home page clearly states:

http://www.aeroportbeauvais.com/index.php?lang=eng

And not for a second do I believe that takeoff was delayed in Morocco due to "VIP movements." That was not reported in any of the news reports; if it was the true reason, you can bet it would have been the FIRST thing Ryan Air announces to the media.

B747-437B

You are always free to believe what you wish. Some of us actually work in this industry and have information from sources other than sensationalist media reports.

Sometimes however it is easier to simply blame the airline than admit that there might actually be a no-fault situation.

jefri68

VERY good stuff, Sf_trotter, I tend to AGREE, and I am severely P.O.'d at the Euro media sources for failing to follow up on this story.

I always love a good conspiracy theory and a story of the little man fighting back when the big, bad corporation spits in his face. I would LOVE to know the truth of what happened here, and I am AMAZED that there is more info here from FT posters than is available on the internet news sources.

jefri68

Very interesting. Care to cite your source?

Any idea why the Euro media that intially shouted this story from the rooftops NEVER bothered to follow up in the slightest about it?