mduell

Depends; could have hit CCO with the delay and couldn't get a replacement crew in time.

username

There was a China Airlines 737 that landed in OKA that developed a fuel leak. I think it was a loose screw that ended up puncturing a hole when the wings retracted after landing? We all know what happened after that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_120 and
This is also why you pay attention to the safety instructions and keep the path clean / devices unplugged / window shades open.

Kevin AA

This is an example of why we need to have a rule that ALL window shades must be up for take-off and landing (some airlines do this). The whiny complaints from people who want a movie theater experience the moment they step on the plane are useless.

LarryJ

No indications. The FAs see little, or nothing, outside from their jumpseats.

toomanybooks

This article says the pilots told pax they have never seen such an occurrence. Wouldn't pilots have previously seen what you are describing?

http://nypost.com/2017/06/14/united-...l-gushing-out/

Exleftseat

Reading the New York Post article. Found the following quite amusing : "While there, she said, United staff said they’d take care of the couple, and asked them to “go easy” on the airline on social media. But after that, United’s warmth cooled."

Wouldn't expect anything different from UA. Every time the same. It's the culture.

dcsnowwake

Looks like an issue with the purge tank is my guess.
It was 90 degrees yesterday and if the 767 was fully filled which I expect with that flight and density alt I would expect it to vent, but yes usually not that much. I would say purge tank was screwed up and that is why it was cancelled.

LarryJ

I've been an airline pilot since 1990 and have only seen it happen once.

Another possibility is a problem with the fuel jettison system.

I didn't fly the 767 for long, and that was over five years ago, so don't remember the relative positions of the vent vs. the jettison outlet.

coolbeans202

What's the procedure when fuel does come out of the vent? Do you just continue on and it'll right itself, or do you need to return to the gate to check it out?

spin88

http://nypost.com/2017/06/14/united-...l-gushing-out/


Summary, people who alerted the crew (and took some cool video) got forgotten about by United (no hotel, only a voucher) as the Post writes:

After finally securing a spot on a Wednesday night Delta flight, the airline gave them a food voucher but nowhere to sleep for the evening, she said. The pair slept on the floor of the baggage claim until 7:30 a.m., when another passenger who did score a hotel voucher spotted them and offered the two heroes the room.

Another passenger is renting them a limo to JFK for their new flight.

“All these people kept thanking us,” she said.

The couple were surprised the airline didn’t do more to avoid bad press after footage of a Kentucky doctor being violently dragged off a United flight went viral earlier this year.

Rachel said the ordeal hasn’t helped her fear of flying — she’s just glad she’s not flying United this time.

“I don’t think it could get much worse, we’re really happy it’s with Delta,” she said.

blueman2

Some sort of weird reverse Hawthorne effect going on here. The more negative attention United gets, the worse it performs. Inconceivable.

FSUnole03

What the hell was UA thinking not giving all passengers a hotel voucher?! It's metro NYC in your backyard. Hundreds of hotels to put people in. UA just gets worse and worse.

aoumd

Since pilots and others who know more are focusing on the technical and safety aspects of this event, I'll focus more on the customer side of this.

HuffPo article seems to sum up all the bad stuff in one place, emphasizing how the customer side of this situation was handled poorly.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...ushpmg00000032

I see three customer failures here:
1) Attendant's initial reaction before seeing the fuel leak for themselves.
2) No hotel voucher for the pax who reported the leak, despite what spokesperson Guerin claims.
3) UA employees telling pax who spotted the leak to "go easy on social media."

Oscar may have made a widely publicized multi-point list of customer commitments post-David Dao. However, those are very situational. Headline after headline reiterates what Oscar's next priority needs to be - reinstating a corporate culture of customer service at the front line level, with every customer interaction from every frontline employee. And here we see that need striking yet again.

Re: (1) A passenger is reporting a possible emergency. Take it seriously until and unless you know it to be otherwise. This goes beyond public perception and into the safety realm too.
Re: (2) If there were EVER a point in United's history where it SHOULD err on the side of going overboard with hotels (as well as every other customer service nicety at their disposal), post-David Dao 2017 IS IT.
Re: (3) Google "Streisand Effect."

There are many great employees at United - I've written in more commendations of UA employees who went way above and beyond than I have complaints in recent years. However, when you're averaging 2-3 major news stories a week because of the minority of those bad actors, management needs to be laser focused on stemming the tide.

narvik

I am pretty sure he is fully aware what the problem is. However, unions and the systemic blasé attitude of quite a few UA/CO employees is impossible to change within a short period of time.
If a positive change in this regards at United were to happen it will take YEARS!

tuolumne

Oscar has turned the train around from the edge of abyss after decades of disastrous employee relations. Yes, these things take years to change, but make no mistake of the progress Oscar has made. The scapegoating of unions is getting so tiring to read here frankly.

I don't care about the sketchy Dr. Dao, or some psychopath who pushed somebody 2 years ago, or how a customer that should've got a hotel didn't - yes, they make for an inconvenient narrative, but Mr. Munoz's accomplishment re: employee relations is grossly underestimated here, where there seems to be more focus on ice cream sundaes than all the tough work he's put in, and progress that has resulted.