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Continued issues with East Coast equipment going mechanical

Continued issues with East Coast equipment going mechanical

Old Jan 14, 2019, 11:36 am
  #16  
 
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The only way to deal with this is have sufficient spare planes and crews on the west coast. Just know that its going to be eight hours before a spare could even get to an east coast location. That being the case AS is going to have to get much better at passenger care and have some standard plan in place to deal with stranded passengers.
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Old Jan 14, 2019, 8:14 pm
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by BearX220
When you fly transcons on an airline with no base / infrastructure east of Interstate 5, getting stuck at eastern outstations is part of the risk you accept. The mechanicals, I don't know what they can do about; they happen to every airline, and AS is not going to park a spare at Logan waiting for something to go wrong. The dismaying slow and stupid response to the BUF diversion a few days ago was something else again. Alaska doesn't seem to have go-to plans for dealing with distant service / pax care emergencies.
I will say ... I had the same thought when I flew JetBlue BUR-BOS a few months ago...
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Old Jan 14, 2019, 8:19 pm
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by northwesterner
I will say ... I had the same thought when I flew JetBlue BUR-BOS a few months ago...
Why? JetBlue has a crew base in LA and many planes going through LGB/LAX/BUR/ONT.
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Old Jan 15, 2019, 6:40 am
  #19  
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Originally Posted by northwesterner
I will say ... I had the same thought when I flew JetBlue BUR-BOS a few months ago...
Starting from SoCal I do not think that is a good comparison. B6 has substantial infrastructure / heft there, starting with LGB base. Not at all comparable to AS on the east coast.

Now, at SEA, JetBlue is as much a stranger in a strange land as AS visiting BOS.
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Old Jan 15, 2019, 6:56 am
  #20  
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Originally Posted by BearX220
Starting from SoCal I do not think that is a good comparison. B6 has substantial infrastructure / heft there, starting with LGB base. Not at all comparable to AS on the east coast.

Now, at SEA, JetBlue is as much a stranger in a strange land as AS visiting BOS.
yep, turn the scenario around imagine B6 SEA-BOS diverting to, say, Helena MT following an inflight emergency
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Old Jan 15, 2019, 8:32 am
  #21  
 
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Originally Posted by jrl767

yep, turn the scenario around imagine B6 SEA-BOS diverting to, say, Helena MT following an inflight emergency
Even then B6 has flights to Bozeman going both East and West.
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Old Jan 15, 2019, 9:50 am
  #22  
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Originally Posted by sfozrhfco
Even then B6 has flights to Bozeman going both East and West.
I fail to see the point here as AS has flights to DTW and PIT that are very close to BUF as well... Or should we pick Rapid City instead? Maybe Omaha?
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Old Jan 15, 2019, 11:54 am
  #23  
 
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Originally Posted by DrAlex
I fail to see the point here as AS has flights to DTW and PIT that are very close to BUF as well... Or should we pick Rapid City instead? Maybe Omaha?
The point is that Helena and Bozeman are very close so if they had to divert they could get to Bozeman within minutes and could divert there and have staff which know their computer systems and could help passengers with flights going both East and West. Any way you slice it B6 is better off having crew bases on both coasts. AS is choosing to save money and are hoping for the best. Thankfully the best happens more often than not but to think that random crews from Boston are going to fly in and fix any AS problem has in the midwest as mentioned in the diversion thread is just ridiculous.
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Old Jan 15, 2019, 4:01 pm
  #24  
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no, the point is that many FAA-approved emergency procedures require the flight crew to land at the NEAREST suitable airport for reasons of SAFETY ... availability of airline staff NEVER enters into consideration

I'll dig up the link later, but a few years back a DL 757 operating JFK-LAX lost an engine shortly after starting descent (~150 miles out) ... using your logic, they should have risked being written up -- or perhaps fired -- for violating the FARs (or, as a minimum, company policy) and just continued on to the destination where they have maintenance facilities, rather than subjecting the passengers to a ~4-hour delay while Ops rustled up a 739 and crew to ferry everybody back to LAX (if memory serves, they deadheaded the jet from LAX)

yes 4 hours isn't 30, but sometimes s#!t happens when recovering from things going pear-shaped ... the FIRST order of business is safety
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Old Jan 15, 2019, 4:44 pm
  #25  
 
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Originally Posted by jrl767
no, the point is that many FAA-approved emergency procedures require the flight crew to land at the NEAREST suitable airport for reasons of SAFETY ... availability of airline staff NEVER enters into consideration
And here is an example, a Frontier flight going from SEA-DEN and had an inflight emergency and landed at Yakima. That is only 103 miles from SEA but you didn't see them try to return back to Seattle.
Incident: Frontier A319 near Yakima on Dec 14th 2011, unruly coffee pot
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Old Jan 15, 2019, 5:04 pm
  #26  
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Originally Posted by jrl767
...DL 757 operating JFK-LAX lost an engine ...
as promised/threatened here's the link ... DL459, 19 Aug 2015
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