gobluetwo

I was one of those delayed last night at EWR. Our flight pushed back, but had to return to the gate because of an FA needing to get off the plane due to a family emergency. We pushed back again, but were stopped due to UA1579. Ended up being a 3 hour delay getting into Chicago (original scheduled arrival was 9:30pm, arrived at 12:24am).

More important than my meager delay, glad it wasn't a serious incident and that everyone is okay! I'm sure there were some nerves, especially after the Manchester incident.

studentff

Good for UA for getting customers their bags back in a few hours. IMO one of the best things airlines can do to encourage passengers to leave bags behind in an evacuation is to make a big public showing of quickly reuniting passengers with their bags after "minor" evacuations. Putting a clip of it in the safety video might even be good idea.


If the 3 people were being unreasonable regarding the false/illegal detention, then I reluctantly support them. If the issue were headcount, the police could simply count anyone who leaves the room and inform them they may not return. Otherwise, the routine of "am I under arrest? am I being detained? Then I must be free to go?" seems quite appropriate. IANAL, but detention for hours to obtain a headcount does not seem "reasonable" to me.

Sounds like UA and the police did a great job overall; shame they seem to have done this one "little" thing to mess it up. Seems cops have to mess things up with a power trip all too often.

1kBill

This is impressive!

It's very disappointing that some pax felt compelled to take their carry-ons. While I like to think I would be one to leave everything behind, I've never been in an evacuation situation so I can't say for sure how I would react. (However, at T/O and landing, I always have my phone, passport and readers in my pockets, just in case.)

TurboFan779

Its funny how when theres an emergency, 130 people can get off a plane in a minute, but when you pull up to a gate after a flight, after one minute, maybe only 30 people would have deboarded.

aradisc

I sympathize with the police/ airport authorities a little bit here (which I am generally loath to do). They were scrambling to make sure they had everybody safely back in the terminal so they could re-open the airport. Can't have aircraft movements with random people wandering around the airfield.

studentff

As do I, hence the "reluctant" support. But based on the times of the facebook posts, this video was taken at least 2 hours after the initial evacuation and seems to have occurred around or after the time the airport reopened for takeoffs/landings. So everyone was off the tarmac, and 2 hours is plenty of time to get a headcount or verify names against a manifest and "release" matched individuals who desire to exit.

The choice of words of the police Lieutenant in the video was confrontational, escalating, power-trippy, and invited a challenge. ("No one is allowed to leave this area. Is that understood?")

You catch more flies with honey, not vinegar. They could have made a request instead of a demand, but LEOs these days don't seem to understand de-escalation or politeness, just asserting their authority.

My guess of my personal reaction in such a situation is that I would not have even considered leaving (still want to get my bags and make my flight) until that announcement was made, but the implication of detention would trigger a flight/fight response urging me to get out asap or at minimum make a stink and stop cooperating with anyone. I suspect that's not an atypical human response.

It's really too bad -- based on the accounts here it seems UA and the authorities did a really great job -- but this spoils it.

HNLbasedFlyer

There are many legal reasons (especially as it relates to planes/fires/national security) you can be detained legally and not simply be free to go in a short amount of time. If there is an explosion/fire etc on a plane, plan on sticking around until it is sorted out.

It is far to simplistic to say the release criteria is matching a name against a manifest then leave. For all we know the police were detaining people to ensure the fire/non-fire wasn't caused by a passenger - and once that was resolved then release the passengers. If a passenger wanted to forcefully leave and got arrested - then a judge would have to find the detainment was longer than necessary.

TurboFan779

Not to speculate too much, but what are possible reasons for such a fire?

DesertNomad

I wear a vest when I fly that has my cash, passport, keys, phone, USB sick with a backup of my important files, and other important things. I also never take my shoes off until we are at cruise, and put them on during the initial descent. I wear the same thing when I fly my own small plane... in which case I never take my shoes off.

clubord

I'll speculate...from what I'm gathering there actually was no true engine fire.

If this occured during a delayed engine start while taxiing to the runway, it's possible there may have been some residual fuel or oil in the engine that ignited upon light off. Causes quite a dramatic flame but essentially harmless once the initial propellant is exhausted.

If this triggered an ENGINE FIRE or ENGINE OVERHEAT EICAS message along with reports from other pilots that would definitely raise concern for me personally. Sure would be nice but we can't visually see the engines from the flight deck.

Going to fly tomorrow, I'll hopefully get the whole story then.

ContinentalFan

i do need to let people know that if you ever have to go down that slide, you really gather speed and you hit the ground with a thud. If you decide to carry and extra 20 to 40 pounds of baggage, the momentum you build will overpower when you hit the concrete.

HNLbasedFlyer

Great advice - it isn't unexpected from an airline perspective that someone(s) will break a leg or ankle going down the slide.

TurboFan779

Do update us if you find anything out please!

Nick Hermann

Was flying in last night to EWR from SFO ( Pretty sure this flight took the bird I took into SFO), we were about 40 minutes from landing when the captain announced that EWR was closed because of an emergency and evacuation, with the possibility of a diversion or hold in the air as we were on the cusp of landing time when airport was scheduled to re-open. Was glad everyone was safe.

originally was going to take the 2pm departure from sfo and glad I didnt since that was diverted to IAD.


I got into gate 82 but when walking to baggage claim, noticed a bunch of cops and united ground management standing near gate in the 70's so I am assuming this was the after effects of this flight?

N104UA

Agreed, I think they should be prosecuted for endangerment and disobeying crew member instructions.

Alternatively UA could "Group Evacuate"
Group 1- Those pax who are smart enough to leave ALL carry ons behind
Group 2- Those pax stupid enough to think that them having their carry-on is more important than the lives of their fellow passengers.