Originally Posted by Buster CT1K
I'm surprised the pax were required to disembark during refueling. I was once diverted SYD-LAX to HNL for refueling on UA and the pax stayed aboard.
It's probably a lot easier to allow pax to deplane on a domestic flight (and on something smaller than a 747). For an international diversion, you'd need a secure transit area for international pax in order to avoid having to go through immigration & customs. While this is common abroad, I'm not aware of any airports in the U.S. that currently have this kind of facility. Of course, I've never been to HNL
, so I don't know what the setup is like there.