In China looks like 80% of the domestic flights late.
Most of the time is this the fault of the Air Traffic Control

The worst reason for a delay I've ever heard was not on a plane but on a train : it was snowing and the reason for the delay was "People are throwing snowballs at the trains" !

OMG!

Bloggers, taking photos for their blog

Several years ago on a delayed Continental flight out of IAH, taxied to the runway, about to power up and take off when the captain came on and said the crew just timed out. Last flight of the day to MCI. Back to the gate and collected a hotel voucher for a stay overnight.

-Greg

I had two delays out of PHF to ATL that finally drove me to avoid PHF forever (very few flights per day so not many re-booking options). The first was heavy, wet snow that required de-icing. Even then, we were over the weight limit for the weather conditions so that required removing pax. After the non-revs were kicked off they called for volunteers. Nobody moved. Then they started removing people based on unstated criteria. My family and I didn't get booted. Once we reached acceptable weight, we needed to be de-iced again. The de-icer truck ran out of juice after doing only one side of the plane. The backup de-icer had a flat tire. They had to borrow a de-icer from another airline to finish the job. Finally got out a few hours late but made our connection in ATL. The second was a maintenance issue. At PHF, they have to call somebody (probably from one of the other two airports in the vicinity) to check it out. No answer so they leave a message. An hour later, they admitted that they had called the wrong number and left a message. So some poor guy was probably trying to figure out why Delta wanted him to come in an fix a plane. They finally call the right number. He shows up and can't fix it. Fly a mechanic in from ATL on the next flight. He needs parts and doesn't have them so as many as possible get on the flight he came in on and the rest were SOL (don't know what happened to them since I was one of the lucky few). Missed my connection in ATL to HNL by a wide margin so had to hop around CONUS until I got to HNL.

Mr. Kipper's flight home was delayed because the catering truck hit the door of the aircraft. They were able to fix it, but apparently regulations indicated that a fix wasn't acceptable, and they needed a brand new part. It was then delayed further when they flew in the incorrect part, and they decided to wait for a different aircraft to arrive as a replacement plane.

They gave people the option to rebook, and of course, a huge line formed. He headed to the lounge and they rebooked him from there.

2006, US Airways, LAS-MSP, shortly after the America West merger. A family of 8 from an unidentified Asian country, probably China or Vietnam (since they were flying to MSP, I believe they were probably Hmong who were heading to visit relatives in St Paul), were sitting in one standard row of 6 on the A320. Two of them were lap babies. The family initially had both lap babies on the same side of the aisle. This is not allowed as there are only four oxygen masks per row on each side of the aisle. The flight attendants attempted to explain this to them so that they would pass off one of the lap babies to someone else in their group on the opposite side of the aisle. But there was a language barrier. None of the flight attendants spoke Hmong or even Chinese and they had the worst time trying to explain why one of the babies had to move across the aisle. I forget how it was resolved. Either they had to find a random US employee at LAS who could speak their language or they had to show an example oxygen mask thing with only four masks, but either way it turned an on-time flight into a 45-minute delay. I doubt anyone was connecting at MSP so it wasn't a big deal, but certainly an interesting delay cause.

:D

Two odd delay stories. First was circa summer 2007 on a NW DC-9 from DTW-PIT. The plane is fully boarded and ready to go and the captain comes on to make an announcement that someone has found a puddle of oil under the right engine that needs to be checked out (a very reassuring thought). Turns out something was loose in the engine. It got fixed relatively quickly and off we went.

The other story is has less to do with the delay than with what happened during the delay. CO Express flight from EWR-PIT had taken a ~3 weather delay due to snow. We finally boarded and had to wait another 45 minutes for a mechanic who was riding along to fix a CO plane that had gone MX in PIT. While we were waiting, the people across the aisle from me asked the FA if they could go outside the plane (a Dash 8) to smoke. The FA politely declined (though with something of an incredulous look -- perhaps sparks and jet fuel are a bad combo). To top it off, when we landed at PIT, we had no gate because of the aforementioned MX plane and had to walk outside with a temp of 3 F (wind chill -17).

I had that one happen the day after a Michigan game in Dallas --- delay was 10 hours and we wound up taking the "last plane in for the day" to DTW. Because of the interest in the game, there all flights, including extra sections, were full all day. We got 25k points out of Delta by complaining about lack of accurate info about the delay and over crowded Sky Club (no seats).

Second case, a late night flight to Seattle because the pilot forgot he had to work and was still in Dallas when he should have been at DTW. That delay was only a few hours.

In both cases, it was the next day until we were back on schedule.

BOb H

Once, I was on a flight that departed and taxiing to the runway. Pilot announces they left behind crew members who were supposed to commute before flying the airplane on its next flight. So the plane returns to the gate to pick up the crew.

People who have tight connections and no time to visit the airport restroom especially if the airport restroom has lines. Yes, even a few minutes can be the difference in getting on the flight and being left behind.

Not my delay, but entirely my fault
 

In November of 2000, I was on an MCO-LAX-NRT trip, when I was young and stupid and worked for a company with entirely too much cash. For (not very good) reasons, I booked two separate flights (UA & ANA) from LAX to NRT. Both left around the same time; and I never bothered to cancel one or the other. I was traveling with a colleague who'd never left the country & he suggested that he'd be nervous arriving in Japan by himself. We were on separate itineraries - he was flying ANA, I had planned to fly UA all the way - but I decided to switch from UA to ANA to make him more comfortable about his upcoming international experience.

The catch: I had checked bags on UA all the way through. So I got on the ANA flight & took off. I figured my bag would show up on the UA baggage carousel in NRT... scheduled to land ~30 minutes later than me. Instead.... the plane was delayed & I went to the UA folks to ask them to send my bag to my hotel.

Me: I came in on a different flight, but my bag is on UA xxx. Can you send it to my hotel if I describe it?
UA customer service: Are you Mr. [angrybuddha]?
Me: [internally] oh boy...

It turns out my name was announced across LAX for 30 minutes *after* scheduled takeoff time. When I didn't show, they had to climb into the belly to find and remove my bag. It was a 3-hour delay on the tarmac for the entire plane. In advance of a 13-hour (?) flight.

I can't imagine a worse delay or for a worse reason. And it was all my fault.

I almost boarded the wrong plane a few weeks ago. Very over-tired and it was one gate away and the same state and boarding at the same time. I saw state, line, and just got in it like the zombie I was at the time. My BP beeped and the GA looked at it and went OH, next gate over. However, if a GA that wasn't paying attention just overrode it, I could easily have been on the plane.


In Toronto a few years back (probably 2012 or 2013), the whole ATC computer system went down for YYZ after my flight had pushed back from the gate. We sat on the tarmac (in a CRJ-200) with tons of other stranded planes until they got it back up, probably at least 3 hours. There was discussion about letting people off, but the issue of clearing/reclearing Canadian/US customs was a problem. They finally worked out a waiting area, and as we were deplaning the system came back up and they immediately replaned everyone who wanted back on. Then the plane had to refuel, and a Delta CRJ-200 is not the priority in the taxi line at YYZ, so end result was at least a 5 hour delay so a nice night spent in DTW as all connections were long gone. After 5 hours in a CRJ, I don't think I sat right for a good week.

Flying eyw-mia-lax-koa on american. small a intentional. 23 minute flight. mechanical delay because the sink drain won't close. Possibility that water draining constantly would cause ice to build up??? Mechanic could not repair drain. Sat there for 3 hours until some genius decided we could fly if they drained the water tank. No water, no ice. Missed connection in Miami. Wife and I spent overnight in Lax on aa's dime. Just 2 days ago aa did it to me again. mdt-phl-lax-koa. Mechanical delay for 3 hours on my flight leaving sunday morning. No seats available on all possible connecting flights because every seat is sold. aa says they can get me home on next saturday. I get to spend a week up north in a predicted Northeaster blizzard. After they book me I have nothing to do so I play with my smart phone and guess what, UAL has flight monday. I show it to the aa gate agent and they book me on United.. 2 years ago trying to fly aa JAC to MDT. Height of summer season. Monday flight. Plane is a no show because aa has not enough pilots to fly airplanes so our plane is in San Antonia with no pilot. aa says we can go thursday. Ask for hotel voucher.gate agent says he has none and only 2 ga to handle 2 cancelled flights with 300 stranded customers. He said "you are on your own". All hotels want $440 a night. Spent one night with no compensation. UAL to the rescue again with flight next day. Tell me why do I keep booking aa ? am I a masochist?