Originally Posted by
actionstations
The issues starts with BA using that one Gate at ORD. when one flight is delayed the rest get knocked on. So the delay on 294 hits 298 etc etc. Pushing back into that cul-de-sac off K16 always ends up with the aircraft waiting for taxy clearance. So the following night we used K19 and it ran much better.
ORD has some strange rules around lightening in the area so that might be a factor rather than at the airport.
I also had a running goat f of a bag issued that continued into Sunday. As was in my original post.
BA used K19, K16 and K14 at ORD. The choice of gate isn’t made by BA but by AA and ORD authorities. As for weather, the rule at ORD is the same as it is in CLT and, frankly, most other airports: no ramp activity when lightnings are reported in the area. That in my opinion is eminently smart because I know of one person, a friend of mine, who was the dispatcher of a cargo aircraft that was hit by a lightning in MXP while he was on wired headset. the discharge went through him. Luckily he had a “grounding” and he survived relatively unscathed.
That being said, the whole thing sounds like a series of causes and co-causes. Without seeing the delay allocation it’s hard to say if weather or crew delay were the driving factor to the crew going out of hours. CEDR might be the best way forwards.