Honest, it's broken
 

On a recent UA trip from Denver - Ontario (CA) the gate attendants announced that the plane was to be takne out of service for mechanical problems. They added that it was "horribly broken". This actually seemed to help reduce the amount of idiots requesting that they fly anyway. Anybody else have similar experiences?

Once on a JFK to SAN flight, we were delayed by a faulty navigation computer. One passanger tells the gate agent "come on, its just a computer" she replies, It's the navigation computer, you wanna land in Mexico? Sure shut that guy up.

Flying UA from ORD to MSY a few months ago on a 727, the plane broke, they fixed it, we taxied out, it broke, we taxi back to an area for what seems like forever, they fixed it ... then one of the passengers demands to get off ... so we have to pull into a gate and unload the passenger ... then we finally got to take off ...

In the early 90's, back when America West flew to Hawaii for awhile, we had a late-night connection from the Honolulu flight in Las Vegas (which was a big hub for America West back then). Flight from LAS-SAN sat at the gate for almost an hour after we boarded because the captain's seat broke..then they cancelled the flight and treated everyone like crap, lying to most of the passengers. Most didn't get a flight out till 8-10 hours later; no hotel, no nothing..for a broken seat at an airport where they had two dozen jets sitting at other gates...

Had one bad experience with AA and never flew them again: Going from BOS-ATL with connection at DFW. BOS-DFW was late, so I missed my connecting flight. Got on the next flight with some waiting prior to boarding and taxied for 6 hours - no joke! Finally turned around because the defrosting machine was broken (there was barely any snow on the ground!) Was told no compensation whatsoever because the cancellation was due to the weather (out of their control, they say). Managed to book myself on the earliest flight out the next morning, so I spent the night at the airport. Of course, they turned off the heat so that it was beyond freezing in the building. Finally boarded the plane at 6am, waited an hour and half and had to deplane due to technical problem. Was told the next flight will be at 9am or so. Boarded that one, waited another hour or so before finally taking off. I wrote to American Airline to complain about the situation. Never heard back from them, so I said screw it! I vowed to never fly with them again, and I haven't since.

This one is about a broken plane that was flown, but shouldn't have been flown.

STL-Nashville on a TWA DC-9 summer 1998---
Sitting across the aisle from me was a concerned lady sitting next to an emergency exit. Even before she called for a flight attendent I knew what her concern was... I could hear it. There was a "swooshing" sound (an air leak) coming from the emergency exit door. So the woman immediately contacted the female flight attendant. The flight attendant told the woman that she'd speak to the pilot about the problem.

Due to the usual STL delay when thunderstorms are present, the flight attendant took her time in the cockpit. Considering that there was a obvious delay, surely the flight attendent would report the problem and the captain would return the elderly DC-9 to the gate and passengers would board another plane. No such luck. About 20 minutes later, the flight attendent said "that's (the sound) normal" and our flight gradually proceeded to the runway. (the neglect of the leaky emergency exit was probably due to the fact the flight was delayed more than 2hrs due to the t-storms and at the time, TWA was pushing for better on-time performance last year so that they could boast about themselves)

Upon take-off the swooshing sound became ever more noticable. When the female passenger contacted the flight attendent about the even more obvious noise, the TWA flight attendant purposely snubbed the female passenger and ignored the female passenger outcry.

For the duration of the hour flight, the woman maintained her body pressed upon the door. Thankfully, the door did not fly off or come open.

Was I relieved when we safely touched down in Nashville!!

As a side note, there were only 2 TWA attendants aboard the 2-class DC-9; as I left the plane in Nashville I overheard the male flight attendant say "Geez. I hope there weren't any 1st class passengers."
We in coach got beverage service while first class passengers didn't-- there wasn't any flight attendent in 1st class. I believe all skimping was due to Southwest flying the STL-Nashville route and hurting TWA's profits on the route.

This experience, and others aboard TWA makes me think that T.W.A. stands Trouble With Aircraft.

I have been reading the interesting posts so far, and I have to share this one. It is probably the only really bad one I have ever experienced.

I flew late last year from HNL-LAX on United. The #4 engine on the 747-200 was not functioning properly, so the flight crew and maintenance tried to fix it at the gate. The gate agents announced it would be a 6 hour delay.

About 35 minutes later, the gate agents announced that the mechanic had made a "miracle fix", and we should be underway in an hour. They ran the engine up for a certain amount of time, and then the mechanics and flight crew discussed, and then ran it up and then disucussed the results again. They repeated this for about an hour.

Finally, the gate agents told everyone that the Captain and the Chief mechanic were arguing about the results of the fix. Finally, after 2 hours of disucssion, the gate agents publicly announced that the Captain of the aircraft deemed the aircraft unflyable and walked away from the aircraft. The gate agents then made a statement, "We need another flight crew that is willing to fly this aircraft, and they won't be arriving for another 6 hours. We will reboard at that time."

The gate agents stated that 747 pilots have attitude problems, and that they "think they know it all". They don't want to think anyone else is right. That is why they ran into this problem with the crew.

I have to say, I have great comfort in a captain that knows it all, especially about his/her aircraft. I know that the FAA regs, state that the pilot-in-command is solely responsible for determining whether or not an aircraft is safe for flight. Last time I checked, I don't think that the gate agent's possess that responsibility.

Then, the gate agents said, "This aircraft is completely safe, and there is absolutely nothing to worry about." I laughed when they said that, because the pilot who did not feel the aircraft is safe, just walked away from the plane.

I think he knows better than anyone.

The flight made it safely to LAX. However, I definitely switched flights and took the red-eye for more a worry-free flight (afterall, I was still on vacation mode).

Max M:

Your "friend," as well as yourself, needn't have worried. While a little annoying, and perhaps worrying for those who don't know, seepage of air through emergency exits is not particularly uncommon, and not dangerous at all. If you look at the instructions on operating the emergency exit doors, you'll notice that they first have to be pulled inside the plane. At this point, they are usually turned sideways and dumped outside.

However, the cabin of the plane is pressurized, otherwise none of us would survive the trip. The difference between the pressure inside the cabin, and the lack of pressure on the outside, result in a force of several tons pressing on the exit door, keeping it in place. It is also this substantial pressure differential that makes it difficult to maintain a perfect seal around the door, and sometimes causes the hissing sound.

On the ground there would be very little pressure difference, only that resulting from the operation of the air conditioning and ventilation fans. As the aircraft gained altitude however, the inside of the cabin would be maintained at a pressure similar to that on the ground, while the outside pressure would quickly decrease. This is why the the sound increased after the plane took off.

In the end what this means is that it would be physically impossible for the door to be opened while the cabin is pressurized. And if the cabin lost pressure, then there would be no difference between the outside and the inside, resulting in no pressure whatsoever on the door, and no air seepage.

So, as you can see, there was nothing really to worry about. However, the flight attendant, or even one of the cockpit crew, should have explained that to the passengers.

Regards,

Ken Hamer