It could have just been a computer crash of that one Q-400's system. Colgan has a policy that if the on-board computer needs to be rebooted, there can't be any passengers on the plane while they're doing it.

One time about 5 minutes before scheduled departure (I think in RDU but I could be wrong), we were all told to exit the aircraft but leave carry-on's where they were and not leave the gate area. About 5 minutes after exiting, we re-boarded and wound up taking off around 20 minutes late.

Based on the OP's story and the comment about the flight status, I'm willing to bet this is what happened.

That sounds nuts. Any idea why they have this policy?

Do the Q-400's landing gear cycle when you do a three-finger-salute to their computers?

I couldn't tell you why they have this policy......the GA and FA seemed to think it was just as as we do.

Easy to understand why. Colgan does not want the pax witnessing this ritual...do you really want to see electrical leads get glued to a hamster's a$$?

What do they do with the passengers if the computer crashes midflight?

That's why they board Febreze bottles. There's no choice at that point and a greater risk of unpleasant odor related to hamster maintenance.

Not sure if it is indeed the case or not, but if so......

I would suspect it might have something to do with one of the warning systems, or the ability to evacuate the aircraft while on the ground. I'm just thinking out loud here, but they might have to take ALL electric power off of the aircraft in order to reset the computer. If that's the case, it might possibly render fire detection systems, emergency lighting, et al inop.

I have no clue about Q400 systems. The FAA doesn't allow us to have folks onboard when certain systems are inop (read: the ability to evacuate), so there might be a scenario that mandates the use of such a rule (if one does indeed exist).

DRW

I too took a double take at the thread title........'Colgan computer crash' is only one letter off from 'Colgan commuter crash'.

This summer, my Colgan flight was running late from EWR and I got rebooked on US at the ticket counter without even having to ask for it. They were right though, I would have missed my connection in EWR by about 10 min.

Another anecdote, several years ago while waiting at the gate in DTW with a fully loaded KLM MD-11 they had to reboot. Everything went dark for about 5 minutes, they did their checks and we were good to go. Offloading a full MD-11 and reboarding would have been a major delay, not to mention any immigration hassles.