Flying for Fun

Unfortunate it appears, in my view, a trend towards, I want more for less, me NOW! society.

Perhaps a better approach would be to increase fares 25% and the give everyone 20% back after the flight, "just in case!"

~​​​​​​36,000 flights a month and a pilot and crew or two who might have got caught up traffic or wasn't feeling well last minute and AS Pilot Management requirs an immediate overhaul? Really?

James

Erasmus

While I certainly am *NOT* asking for compensation, it does disturb me that nobody would notice that the pilots were AWOL until they tried to push. I would have hoped they had a better pilot tracking system, indeed. Yes, pilots are late all the time for various reasons, but one would presume they would inform somebody and/or the airline was aware (because, e.g., they are inbound on a delayed flight). Pilots are supposed to do a bunch of stuff preflight (walk arounds, get NOTAMs, flight plans, talk to dispatch, etc., etc.). The fact that absolutely nobody noticed (or at least did not communicate it to the GA dispatching the flight) was disturbing to me.

beckoa

I've had this happen several times, both on AS and on other carriers.

NW was epic... was on a redeye SEA-MSP and ended up with nearly 3 hours of a delay when there was no pilot. (called in sick) so they had to wake someone up and drive up.

Bottom line, this does happen from time to time, and is unfortunate when it does. But rest assured, the aircraft won't push back without its cabin crew.

Erasmus

Really? You've had the GA close out the flight and say they are "OK to close" without any crew in the cabin? I've had pilots late for all kinds of reasons, but I have never before had an instance where the ground crew was clearly completely unaware they were not aboard the plane.

Tracer_SEA

But it's not the gate agents' job to track pilots or replace pilots if they are AWOL... Just like it's not their job to track the weather and make judgments about whether to board a flight based on weather conditions

They have a hundred other things to do that can keep them busy/distracted.

As you note, this was a rare occurrence. Usually the pilots are there on time. Did one of them have a family emergency? Or were they on time but the shuttle driver at their crew hotel called in sick?

My sense here is that the answer is super mundane, not in Alaska's direct control, and not indicative of a trend...

Erasmus

Not being an AS GA, I cannot speak authoritatively about what their job is, but in my experience part of the GAs' job is to verify the ID of the crew members assigned to the flight as they arrive so they can be provided access to the jetway. My point, however, is not that the GA in particular was unaware, but that apparently everyone was unaware--I clearly overhead the conversations between the GA and the FAs that ops, dispatch, etc., etc., all had no idea. It also would seem common courtesy for the pilots to call somebody (scheduling, dispatch, whomever) if they are hung up. As I mentioned earlier, the crew was legitimately concerned for the pilots' health and wellbeing (they were speculating about major accident with the hotel shuttle, etc.,) so this was clearly unexpected for them as well.

In the end, no big deal, but a curiosity to be sure. Would love to hear the back story if anyone uncovers it.

beckoa

Specifically, I'm not sure. However I just realized one from earlier in the year- VX flight (pre-upgrades) and there was no flight crew to be seen. Fully loaded, we were waiting on the tarmac for what seemed like 20-30 minutes before the crew arrived.

s0ssos

Let's compare rarities. Which event is rarer? I'd say the former. By severe orders of magnitude.

SpicyMorale

If you read my post, I have received compensation for a lesser delay. Also asking for input, not saying I expect it.

tusphotog

sltlyamusd

mvoight

That might be a bit dangerous, like that time famous dancer Nikolai 'Kolya' Rodchenko got hit with a cart during that emergency landing in Siberia, and was forced to live with an American Army deserter who was a good tap dancer

Tankerman

AS Flyer

I think it's difficult to have FA's traveling through SFO, changing planes to other flights. If they're on a flight affected by ATC delays, it can have a huge domino affect on what happens downline. With all the ATC delays lately, I can't imagine the challenge crew scheduling has in making sure the flights timeliness is not affected. In this case, it seems like they were unable to shuffle people around so as not to affect this flight. There are so many variables when considering what to do if a crew is falling behind, but I know they work really hard to ensure this kind of thing doesn't happen if at all possible.