danielonn

My Mother was on a Delta flight arriving from SJC around 11:30 and they were advised that an American Airlines plane was blocking the access to Terminal 5 and was delayed 45 minutes as a result. Could anyone tell me what the problem was and why couldn't Delta have rerouted them via a different runway.

I know my Mother was flying Delta but the culprit A/C was AA so hence why I'm posting here on AA. I could not find anything here on FT as to why the AA plane was blocking the taxiway. I would have thought they could have used a tug to pull the plane out.

Thanks

FlyerBeek

First, there's a significant difference between a runway and a taxiway. I highly doubt that any aircraft was blocking a runway for 45 mins as your thread's title suggests. LAX is highly congested, and the alleyways into the gate areas (one such alleyway is shared by both AA and DL) can involve considerable delays. This is probably what was blocked. Plenty of possible reasons why (aircraft malfunction, broken tug/tow bar, multiple aircraft waiting for gates to become available, etc.). There have been several times this year I've had to wait 30+ mins for a gate at LAX.

-FlyerBeek

AlwaysAisle

If it is an alleyway between Terminal 4 and Terminal 5 of LAX, where east side of this alleyway is DL Terminal 5 and west side is AA Terminal 4.

When I lived at LA back when, I was told that ramp control of Terminal 5, DL, controls traffic at that alleyway. Heard more than once AA pilots saying the ramp control tend to give preference to DL planes because the ramp control for that alleyway is DL employee. Pilots were complaining that AA planes tend to get put on hold longer than DL planes.

I am not sure if that is still the case.

UAPremierGuy

Yeah...was gonna type all of the above earlier...waited for somebody to articulate it better then I could have, lol. Long gate-holds are well known for AA @ LAX. This is one area where I have had much better experiences on UA at LAX.

JDiver

Pilots at LAX don't get to choose where they park of taxi. The "culprit" would be LAX Ground Control, and probably had to do with gates and aircraft movement.

As this has little to do with specific airlines other than which were affected by this ground stall (AA and DL) we will relocate this to the Los Angeles forum.

/Moderator

danielonn

JDiver may I kindly point out and I apologize for any misunderstanding the pilot said there was an American Airlines plane that was blocking the access to allow the plane coming in from San Jose to park at gate 50. I posted in the American forum because I was wondering if there were any people on that flight perhaps a mechanical problem or medical emergency.

Thanks for allowing me to clear this up. Perhaps you would move this back to the AA forum and retitle this to fit the forum. Its just like AA 333 went mechanical and Passenger X was on Delta. This in my opinion is an "airline specific"question hence why I posted it in the AA Forum as the AA Plane was blocking the Delta Flight from parking and causing a 45 minute delay on the ground. The inbound flight from LA was delayed coming into SJC.