South London Bon Viveur

I would be interested to know the answer to this, although I would very sincerely hope not because this cannot be good for a safety first culture.

BOH

Apparently I thought they have loads just hanging around and drinking coffee at the airport waiting for just this type of event

Tobias-UK

I suppose a flight is allowed to leave without a passenger but I'm not sure it would be allowed to leave without a full complement of flight crew!

I do feel for the pilot, no doubt s/he was sent to the naughty step and now feels like a complete nincompoop.

After each of my trips as soon as I arrive home I prepare my 'Go Bag' for the next one, it's always packed and ready for a 3-night trip. I'm often required to travel at very short notice so the bag is always ready to grab-and-go. When it is not ready to go, the bag will remain on the floor completely open to remind me to re-pack the following morning.

In addition to the 'Go Bag' my small (laptop type) bag is always ready for travel. This has my charging cables, travel adaptor, charged power bank, phone SIMs, EUR & USD Visa/Amex cards, Priority Pass and CCR/Airline/Hotel Membership Cards, a selection of foreign currencies, nail clippers, Bose headphones, backup eyeglasses, spare house keys and passport.

My day of travel routine never alters: iPad, phone and wallet to small bag and double-check passport. If any item is removed from this bag it is always immediately returned. This bag always travels with me, even on vacation so sensible to leave the passport in situ.

I suspect pilots have a similar routine, but if the passport is removed from the work bag (to go on vacation for example) it could very easily be forgotten once home and following the old routine.

Pascoe

I have a vaguely similar routine not because of short notice but because I am often departing at silly O'Clock and maybe not at my sharpest as I stumble into a cab.

Globaliser

I wonder whether we would ever have heard about this relatively minor delay if the captain hadn't been quite so candid.

David_Doyle

I presume this was the A380 flight?

If so I'm surprised the A380 haters haven't chipped in yet - "Why does this always happen on the A380?" and "BA should really have bought the 747-8"

rapidex

You must have very fast growing nails if you need your clippers for a 3 day trip

Has anybody considered the fact that said co pilot might be brand new and just finding his/her feet. cockups happen even to the best of pilots. Having witnessed the Fleet manager, Chief training captain and Chief flight engineer push back with the L1 door open, hearing a horrible tearing sound as it was torn off and a loud crash as L1 fell on the tarmac, I was cheered by the fact that no one is immune. There was a long delay and no EU261 for that event.

Often1

Of course BA tracks preventable errors such as this and will counsel the First Officer. It also likely spent a significant amount of money on the service recovery because the aircraft landed just 1:19 late. Always possible that the winds worked in BA's favor, but this speaks of using a less efficient route and more fuel.

LTN Phobia

I feel bad for the affected passengers and BA, but I also have sympathy towards the FO, who must be mortified!

I hope he doesn't get too harsh a tea no bikkies as I'm sure he'd not do that again.

DeathSlam

Greatly cheered by how nice most folks are on here. Let s/he who has never messed up throw the first stone (or spare cabin door) to the tarmac. On a recent Ex-UK trip I managed to lose two pairs of glasses before I'd even exited the UK. S**t happens.

msm2000uk

I wonder if the FO apologised over the PA system during the flight?

M

RollAnotherFatOne

Don't they have a locker to put it in?
Budget cuts must deny them a second one for their locker.

Pascoe

If it's a LH flight unlikely to be a 'new' FO right? As I understand it everyone starts on SH

But as Rapidex said, mistakes can happen to absolutely anyone. Btw when was that L1 incident? Jeez

DeadManFlying

They cut me some slack when I forgot my passport, as soon as I told the sorry story to customer services they put a note into the system putting me on standby and said get back as soon as you can and we should be able to get you on a flight.

Granted it was only to Linate and 6.30 in the morning on a Sunday so there was plenty of time in the day to get to Reading and back and for them to help me out but it was still very good of them and I was very greatful

DMF

rapidex

About 28 years ago in TPE