simonsmith

Never had this happen to us before: 7th Nov.

Left the Lounge with the flight still not showing any remarks. D6 the good old UK mostly bus gates. Experience tells us that often these go from no remarks to boarding to gate closed within a 5 minute time frame. Flight at 1620 so left the lounge at 1535. Got to D6 flight now showing as boarding. No priority lane at security so took a while and by the time through they were calling for last passengers. Got on the bus with 6 others at just before 1600. One passenger missing who eventually turned up at 1615 and off the bus went to the stand with the paperwork. A Fokker 70. As we were approaching the plane the bus driver shouts "the plane is leaving without you" Sure enough steps were up and the engines on and the dispatcher was looking about to disconnect his wiring. Bus driver stops and leaps out of the bus across the tarmac towards the dispatcher. Lots of hand waving goes on between both and towards the cockpit. Several people start running around and the bus driver comes back saying they are thinking what to do. Down come the steps again and we are allowed to pull around and then get on the flight. The Purser is very embarrassed and takes the paperwork from the bus driver. She apologies to us very nicely and says this has never happened to her before. They were obviously happy to take off 7 passengers short but with their hold luggage : a bit of a worry. Any ideas how this could have happened!

Gajan

I suppose there is a first time for everything

It would have been bad news if they would have taken off without the owner's of the luggage.

Gajan

Xandrios

Well it wouldnt have been that bad. As long as such cases are not occurring often, and are not predictable, I doubt there would be any safety threats.

mfkne

I suppose it comes down to having a bad day, presumably on the side of the flight attendant. Akward but somewhat funny situation though

irishguy28

Totally bizarre!

I presume the Fokker 70 is usually served by just one bus? So that for whatever reason the fact that two buses were used may have caused the confusion - the onboard crew assumed it was just one bus of passengers and thought they had everyone on board once the first bus had disgorged its passengers.

But doesn't explain why they'd shut up and ready for take-off without the paperwork! Perhaps paperwork goes missing and it's not actually a must-have before they set off - though I would really have thought that it would be a no-no to leave without it.

FrankC6

In my experience, there are always two busses; one for the majority of passengers that nicely line-up when boarding commences, and a second bus for all of the passengers that wait for final call (in my experience, the number of passengers on the second bus is usually less than 20). So to be honest, I can't really imagine the second bus being a surprise to the purser.

simonsmith

It really was quite funny and I was getting quite excited about the possible compenstaion! If it was not for the bus driver we would have had it. The purser came to see us 3 times during the flight to say sorry.

MSPeconomist

OP, did you notice whether the purser seemed to have previously received an earlier set of paperwork for the flight?

Aviatrix

Not always - at least in my experience. Sometimes there are two, sometimes they fit everyone on one. Depends on how full the flight is, depends on whether or not everybody is at the gate when the flight gets called.

But the second bus should certainly not have been a complete surprise because second buses are quite common.

Henry III

As there was a 'happy ending', then this is a great story! To my over-fertile imagination, it conjures up a surreal image - a la "Die Hard 3" - of a Fokker 70 being chased down the taxiway by a Cobus 2000, with the driver leaning out of his window, shouting like a madman to try to attract the attention of the oblivious Fokker pilot: "Hey, man! You've left some behind!"

There then follows the "007" scene of the bus pulling up alongside the plane on the runway, bus doors open, Fokker slides used as a bridge, and bewildered, trembling FTers staring death in the face as they make the perilous crossing between vehicles!



-- Henry

irishguy28

And you would also perhaps have stood to gain 187 award miles, and an extra level segment, for having been checked in for the sector that you didn't actually take!!!!

mfkne

YMMD

KLeM

That made my day ^

simonsmith

No I did not ; I was watching the gate agent who had been calling the last passenger ; She printed off the passenger list etc handed it to the driver and closed her computer down ; I doubt if she had sent more previously she looked like an old hand at it.

simonsmith

reply from KLM received as below: it does not shed much light on things!

"We have received feedback from the appropriate department at Schiphol and can inform you as follow;

There is no clear reason why the situation you were in occurred. There was a misunderstanding, between the team leader of the platform and the crew. Therefore the crew already closed the doors and were ready to take of, while 7 passengers including you weren't on board. We are sorry that this unpleasant situation happened to you and would like to apologize for the inconvenience.

We trust to have informed you sufficiently. "