Originally Posted by
slomback
I'm sitting at gate C14 at IAD.
Previously my flight to Tampa (flight 704) was departing out of gate D10 at 5:35PM.
At exactly 5pm they announced there was a gate change to C14.
We passed all the people on the New Orleans flight (flight 383) on the way to the new gate.
They had been given our gate so they could depart near there departure time (with a slight delay) and we were given their aircraft which has a mysterious mechanical problem.
The gate agent just showed up and explained that the plane has a mechanical problem and we can expect a status update at 7PM.
I wonder why the New Orleans flight was so important? Perhaps its delay affects more schedules?
I'm throughly enjoying the crying babies here at the gate.
Could be, impossible to know. It could have been that the New Orleans jet was turned down by the Captain for the mechanical issue, so they switched jets giving him the MSY jet. Mtnce might have thought they could fix the jet to TPA, or that the pilot to TPA might be more inclined to take the jet. Example might be an inop wx radar. TPA weather is good, MSY TS forecasted, so they swap jets. Afterwards, the captain of the TPA flight might have decided he wanted the jet fixed versus taking it broken to TPA. I have no way of knowing, just saying that there are numerous reasons and decisions going on with situations like these that you wouldn't be privy to.