Originally Posted by
catocony
I've listened in on Channel 9 lots of times and you can hear captains practically begging ATC to let them get out. "I'll take whatever altitude you can give me, whatever air route that's open, whatever direction". The guys really do want to get going just as badly as us.
amazing what a difference channel 9 makes.. i had two long ground delays this week -- one AA and one UA. the UA pilot repeatedly encouranged people to listen in on channel 9 to stay up to date on the delays, and it was nice to hear how hard everyone was trying to get things moving.
Originally Posted by
catocony
But, the breakdown occurs after a long time on the ground when the common-sense approach is to find a gate - any gate - and get people off. . . . . These days there's no food, limited beverages out there. Seats are jammed, it's hot, zero room, crying babies, etc. Just get people off the planes if you're not going anywhere.
the lack of food is a problem. my AA delay this week was a bit over four hours from pushback to takeoff. that breaks down as follows: 45+ minutes on push, initial taxi, stop, refile new flight plan for west departure, taxi to the west side of DFW, and get stuck. 2.5 hours sitting. 45 minutes waiting to take off once the airport reopened for departures. after takeoff, it was just under 3.5 hours to arrival at BOS. 7 hours, 33 minutes block time on an MD80. they had buy on board available, but they only cater for 20% of the cabin, and when the service starts 5 hours after pushback, that's not going to be nearly enough... (fortunately, i cleared standby directly into F, so i was assured a soggy 5-hour-old chicken salad sandwich...)
but.... at the three hour mark, we were sitting on a taxiway, unsure of when we might move. of course, at that time, the relevant line of tstorms was over the field, and i would assume the ramp was closed. what was the right thing to do at that time? once the line of storms passed, takeoffs started fairly quickly, and we were 30th in line. what was the right thing to do at that time?
Originally Posted by Wally Bird
Better yet, don't board them in the first place. These delays do not suddenly materialize between the time the plane leaves the gate and reaches the departures queue (well very rarely).
my only gripe is that they pushed at all. i could see that the line of aircraft approaching the runways on the east side was not moving, and a quick web check showed that another BOS-DFW flight that had departed two hours earlier had not yet taken off. (i wish i had noticed either of these things before deciding to standby on this particular flight...) once they decided to push, tho, i thought the crew handled it as well as possible. i don't think it would have been right to return to the gate at 3 hours, or at any point after 3 hours. (fwiw, i handed applause certs to all of the FAs at the end of the flight..)
if you want to pass a law, require compensation. make the compensation high enough that airlines will try not to send out planes that are going to get stuck for that long. but to take discretion away from the crews working the flights is crazy....