Just out of curiosity and fun, what are some of the best excuses you have ever heard for a delayed flight?

Flying out of YUL one morning in early 2007 on AC, we were informed that the flight was delayed as it was "too cold for the baggage handlers to work".

Another classic out of DCA (AC Jazz) was "We are just waiting for the snow to melt before we can tow the aircraft to the gate".

Be interested to hear yours!

"We can't find the aircraft we are supposed to use..." - Not surprisingly, from a GA in Dhaka, Bangladesh for pathetic national flag-carrier Biman Bangladesh.

Now, mind you, Biman only has, at any given time, 3-4 aircraft in airworthy condition.. lol

-t.

OK - it was just a marginal delay.

We were in a 16 seater jet at the end of a runway at Kruger in South Africa. Pilot announces "we have to hold here for a moment, there is a giraffe about to cross the runway".........."OK, we can head of now".

He revs up the engine, accrelarates for 2 seconds and hits the brake. "Sorry about that - a second giraffe has now decided to join the first giraffe on the other side of the runway". At which point he has to taxi the plane in a complete circle to return to the end of the runway. We could see a jeep head off in the direction of the giraffe to hurry them on their way.

Second time lucky, we acceralarated and sped down the runway. As we were taken off, I could see one giraffe with a very indignant face glaring at our jet.

Back in the day when NJ was still flying I was on an MCI-LGA flight that was allegedly delayed due to a missing FAA door sticker.

Funny thing is, that one is the most believeable excuse I've heard yet...

DTW on a NW flight, roughly 6 months after NW moved to the new terminal. We tried to push back (this was at one of the gates where planes were pushing back on engine power, rather than using a tug). Engine revs, we go nowhere. Engines back to idle, rev up again, no movement. Captain comes on the PA and says that the parking brake is stuck. So we wait for maintenance to show up. They show up, say nothing is wrong with the parking brake.

Captain comes back on the PA and says that it's apparently not the parking brake, but that we've created a rut in the concrete, and they're going to need to get a tug (from the other side of the airport) to push us out of the rut.

Snow and
subsequent delays due to ramp closure.

Also, an unfortunate blackout on the eastern seaboard.

"Weather".

The magic word that gets airlines out of any compensation for delays.

Mine was also my scariest flying experience. I was flying from Sochi, Russia to St. Petersburg on what was probably some piece of junk Tupolev on always scary Aeroflot. Our first delay was because the pilot couldn't find the keys to the cabin door. Yeah, the door actually took a regular key. After we all boarded, they couldn't get the cabin door to latch shut. They called out a mechanic who proceeded to pound and reshape the door frame with a hammer, alternatively trying to pull it closed until it would latch. Once he was satisfied, he gave us the clearance to take off. I was sitting across from that door. My seatbelt was on extra tight that entire flight.

Flying out of Newark while still taxing the plane decided that there was a significant decrease in cabin pressure and deployed the airbags. While not a excuse but for once it was a visable reason. We never did leave that night no more working planes it was Peoples Express mind you.

BOS-LHR a few years ago.

Co-Pilot forgot his passport at home and had to go back to get it.

Then the 'Tunnel' excuse was used for Co-Pilot with passport now stuck in traffic.

Left three hours late.

KenJohn ~ "giraffe delay"! that's hilarious!

Why did the giraffe cross the runway?


Once on a flight from Beijing to Shenzhen, my boss decided to instruct our admin to put me on the cheapest flight. I ended up on Southeastern China Airlines (or something like that). We board the flight and are sitting on the runway. The make an announcement in Mandarin and everyone on the plane starts talking at once --- it all seemed very panicky. I don't speak enough Mandarin to follow what just happened. They do make a short announcement in English, which I can't hear because everyone around me is panicking in Mandarin. We sit on the tarmac for four hours while various airline officials get on and off the plane repeatedly. We finally take off and make it safely. I still don't know what exactly the problem was, and I think that I'm probably glad that I couldn't figure out what was going on.

Reason number 429 (heard yesterday).

The delay was caused by the previous flights all having high passenger loads.

In my old days working at PE, we had a Captain who would say during a delay "We are going to be a few minutes late getting out of here. The machine that breaks the wheels and handles on your luggage is broken and we have to do it by hand." It would usually get a chuckle and then he would offer the usual thunderstorm ATC hold.