Overworked Pilot & Unprepared Airline Force Flyers to Suffer Through 7-Hour Delay
Joe Cortez February 27, 2015
An Air France flight was forced to divert short of its final destination in Paris for several hours so the pilot could rest.
Frustrated passengers trying to get home on an Air France flight were stuck in Manchester for over seven hours after their pilot ran out of flying hours. Daily Express reports the flight from New York to Paris was forced to divert to Manchester because the pilot was legally required to rest, leaving passengers stranded on the plane as the airline worked toward a solution.
The A380, carrying 460 passengers, had initially been delayed in New York by around four hours while waiting for de-icing. The delay pushed the pilot past his allowed flying time, forcing the flight to land in Manchester at 11:30 a.m. local time. At first, passengers were told that a new crew would be brought in to take flyers on to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). When the replacement crew was brought in, however, they discovered a “technical fault” during pre-flight checks.
During the stop in Manchester, flyers were kept on their aircraft for over seven hours as Air France scrambled to figure out a solution. Three new aircraft were ultimately dispatched to accommodate the displaced travelers, but not before the travelers spoke out about the conditions on board.
“There was no food whatsoever. There were kids who hadn’t eaten since leaving New York the previous day who had had no food,” said one unnamed flyer. “There was a lot of frustration on the flight, people were getting quite annoyed.”
Passengers were eventually allowed to deplane while the replacement aircraft were en route. They were shuttled to a separate area near departures, where they were provided with 50 burgers from Burger King.
In a statement, Air France told Daily Express that it “understand well the exasperation of its customers in this situation.”
[Photo: Air France]
You’re Reading
The passengers should not have been left on board for an extra 7 hours, with no food for children (or adults). The change in crew, and the discovery of the technical fault, should not put the passengers in an unsafe and extremely uncomfortable situation. Otherwise, except for this one huge flaw, the weather delay, the change in crew and the technical problem were within the range of normal and not AF's fault.
It would be interesting to know why on such an important and huge flight that there not extra pilots. U.S. airlines do this all the time, you know the usual announcement: please be assured that the cockpit is staffed at all times, as you may see extra pilots on board or walking around. Anthony Bourdain from Kitchen Confidential, “Your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.”
The EU actually DOES have quite strict rules. A 7+ hour delay should see a €600 compensation payment to each flyer or a full refund. Good luck to the passengers requesting it though, getting airlines to cough up what they owe is like pulling teeth, I write from personal experience.
How long they waited for the new crew? AF must had known the original crew won't make since the JFK departure, therefore a fresh crew should be waiting them at MAN. At least this delay could have been avoided.
I am outraged to see so much approximations in this article, and no one from FlyerTalk to balance this piece of information with operational info. And the following comments are really below the usual level of our nice community. Max flight time for cabin crews are legal requirements. Full stop. These requirements need to be met, full stop. The flight was diverted to MAN to change crews. A full new crew has been ferried by AF from CDG, but then a technical fault was detected on one of the doors, causing pressurization issues. AF then ferried 3 A321 from CDG to MAN to take care of the passengers and transport them to Paris. This whole process took a lot of time and of course passengers handling can always been processed in a better way, but frankly, there is not much they could have done to reduce the 7-hour delay.