I don't see how you can fly Punta Cana direct to Calgary without turning the airplane into a flying gas can. Is this another example of Sunwing trying to do routes that are not practical especially when something goes wrong? I believe almost all WJ flights were Cx to and from YHM that day. Why did they decide to go?
A lot of angry passengers have finally arrived home in Calgary after spending eight hours sitting on a Sunwing flight on the runway at the airport in Hamilton.
The flight from the Dominican Republic to Calgary stopped for a crew change and to refuel in Hamilton on Monday night as the area was being hit by a massive storm.
Sunwing says the poor weather conditions made it problematic to attach the ramp to the plane.
But passengers say it was a nightmare, with people demanding to get off and some having panic attacks.
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Pauline Lamoureaux says the conditions were inhumane because there was no ventilation and few services on the plane.
She says they were only allowed to deplane around 5 a.m. Tuesday morning after someone called 911 for help.
"It wasn't a good scene at all," she says.
"We knew that Hamilton seemed like a crazy place to stop, because we were leaving Punta Cana and going to Calgary, we heard there's an ice storm in Ontario," says Jessica Kowalski. "Why are we stopping there? It didn't make any sense."
Passengers were eventually taken to a hotel paid for by Sunwing, where they got an hour or two of sleep before being placed on another flight home to Calgary.
The company apologized for the inconvenience and is offering passengers a $150 travel voucher.
The US had some of these nightmare marathon sessions of pax kept in a/c during storms, and changed their regs. Can't treat people like that anymore.
It's about time Canada followed suit. I get it, delays happen. But being trapped on a 737 for 8 hours on the ground is pretty much my idea of the seventh circle of hell.
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I’m still waiting for my white male privilege membership card. Must have gotten lost in the mail.
Be interesting to hear more on this, seems inhuman to keep passengers locked up in an airplane for that length of time especially at a Canadian Airport on a Canadian operated charter company. Perhaps there were extraordinary circumstances but this gives those sunny south destination charter vacation companies a real bad name, hopefully some reasonable explanation (if there is such a thing) will be provided.
My understanding is that there were several contributing factors on this flight:
1. The -800 can't operate PUJ-YYC non-stop. Pax are informed (in big bold print) that their return flight will require a fuel stop at the time of the booking. The fuel stop is always scheduled for YHM as it isn't too far out of the way of the great circle routing and is far less busier than YYZ.
2. Because of duty day restrictions, a crew change takes place in YHM during the fuel stop. Although the weather in YHM wasn't forecast to be the greatest, the fresh crew was already positioned in YHM making it more difficult to make last minute changes to where the fuel stop would occur.
3. Ramp handler in YHM had numerous people call in sick and was short staffed.
4. Conditions on the ramp and the lack of staff made it difficult to get stairs back onto the aircraft.
5. Passengers were never supposed to disembark in YHM. As a result passengers could not simply be left off the aircraft as they are internationally bonded. Once the decision was made to disembark passengers a large delay was incurred so Canada Customs could get set up to receive and process 150 people.
Not a great situation and definitely aspects that could have been handled better. But any passenger that assumes that the crew of an aircraft just decided to "hold them hostage" for 8 hours for no good reason when those crewmembers are stuck in the same metal tube as the passengers needs to give their head a shake.
What was it about the 911 call that somehow made it possible for the people to get off the plane when they couldn't at some point in the previous 8 hours? I wonder at what point in the ground delay future 911 calls will happen, and what result those will have. I would have been eyeing the emergency exit and slides long before 8 hours lol.
I can certainly sympathize with the situation but it sounds like Sunwing really dropped the ball. Where's your back up plan? 8hrs on the ramp is nuts. Maybe consider having staff on hand and maybe start thinking of purchasing air-stairs.
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gonnabeapilot wrote:My understanding is that there were several contributing factors on this flight:
1. The -800 can't operate PUJ-YYC non-stop. Pax are informed (in big bold print) that their return flight will require a fuel stop at the time of the booking. The fuel stop is always scheduled for YHM as it isn't too far out of the way of the great circle routing and is far less busier than YYZ.
2. Because of duty day restrictions, a crew change takes place in YHM during the fuel stop. Although the weather in YHM wasn't forecast to be the greatest, the fresh crew was already positioned in YHM making it more difficult to make last minute changes to where the fuel stop would occur.
3. Ramp handler in YHM had numerous people call in sick and was short staffed.
4. Conditions on the ramp and the lack of staff made it difficult to get stairs back onto the aircraft.
5. Passengers were never supposed to disembark in YHM. As a result passengers could not simply be left off the aircraft as they are internationally bonded. Once the decision was made to disembark passengers a large delay was incurred so Canada Customs could get set up to receive and process 150 people.
Not a great situation and definitely aspects that could have been handled better. But any passenger that assumes that the crew of an aircraft just decided to "hold them hostage" for 8 hours for no good reason when those crewmembers are stuck in the same metal tube as the passengers needs to give their head a shake.
I sure as f--- didn't read/see any sympathy for the 150 pax who were treated in such an inhuman manner, sounds like a well "shit happens" people, this is aviation so suck it up princess. Those are nothing but five unacceptable excuses that many would see as well below any operating standard - bar none. When pax call 911 to get out of a terrible situation that says it all. First time I ever heard of such a thing at a Canadian Airport. Bet there are 150 SOBs who will never step on a flight from this airline again and will inform any acquaintances as such, notwithstanding the fact that calls to their lawyers are highly probable. Probably right to.
I have said it before and I will say it again! I used Sunwing once and will never again. Pay the extra $$ for peace of mind. Go AC or WJ, you won't regret it.
The $150 Sunwing voucher I got last winter made for good a$$ wipe
Maybe they should be ready for delays / pay to have customs on standby should they get into a situation like this or just fuel stop somewhere that has customs available.
fish4life wrote:Maybe they should be ready for delays / pay to have customs on standby should they get into a situation like this or just fuel stop somewhere that has customs available.
The max will take over that route next year likely. That will eliminate the need for fuels stops.
fish4life wrote:Maybe they should be ready for delays / pay to have customs on standby should they get into a situation like this or just fuel stop somewhere that has customs available.
The max will take over that route next year likely. That will eliminate the need for fuels stops.
tbaylx wrote:The max will take over that route next year likely. That will eliminate the need for fuels stops.
Do you mean the Boeing 737 Max? I do not think that aircraft will be in service till the second or third quarter of 2017. Southwest is the launch customer.
"Keeping people prisoner on an airplane for 12 hours on the tarmac is absolutely outrageous, I don't know how [Air Canada] think they had the right to do that," Cran said.
gonnabeapilot wrote:My understanding is that there were several contributing factors on this flight:
1. The -800 can't operate PUJ-YYC non-stop. Pax are informed (in big bold print) that their return flight will require a fuel stop at the time of the booking. The fuel stop is always scheduled for YHM as it isn't too far out of the way of the great circle routing and is far less busier than YYZ.
2. Because of duty day restrictions, a crew change takes place in YHM during the fuel stop. Although the weather in YHM wasn't forecast to be the greatest, the fresh crew was already positioned in YHM making it more difficult to make last minute changes to where the fuel stop would occur.
3. Ramp handler in YHM had numerous people call in sick and was short staffed.
4. Conditions on the ramp and the lack of staff made it difficult to get stairs back onto the aircraft.
5. Passengers were never supposed to disembark in YHM. As a result passengers could not simply be left off the aircraft as they are internationally bonded. Once the decision was made to disembark passengers a large delay was incurred so Canada Customs could get set up to receive and process 150 people.
Not a great situation and definitely aspects that could have been handled better. But any passenger that assumes that the crew of an aircraft just decided to "hold them hostage" for 8 hours for no good reason when those crewmembers are stuck in the same metal tube as the passengers needs to give their head a shake.
I sure as f--- didn't read/see any sympathy for the 150 pax who were treated in such an inhuman manner, sounds like a well "shit happens" people, this is aviation so suck it up princess. Those are nothing but five unacceptable excuses that many would see as well below any operating standard - bar none. When pax call 911 to get out of a terrible situation that says it all. First time I ever heard of such a thing at a Canadian Airport. Bet there are 150 SOBs who will never step on a flight from this airline again and will inform any acquaintances as such, notwithstanding the fact that calls to their lawyers are highly probable. Probably right to.
I once spent seven hours on an AC 767 on the ramp in Ottawa after we taxied off the taxiway and got stuck, got pulled out, inspected, then cleared to take off for the flight to Toronto where we found out that we had missed our connections home for Christmas (This was December 22nd and no seats were available until the 27th). Because this was a "weather delay" we weren't eligible for any compensation. We didn't find out until 4am in Toronto that this was the case and if I had known I wouldn't have left Ottawa.
I still fly Air Canada when I have to, but usually choose Westjet (including today from Winnipeg to Nanaimo- thanks guys!).
This kind of stuff happens at most airlines I think and my impression is that what makes the difference between a situation where passengers are angry or relatively happy are one or two employees stepping up and doing something outside the box. It sounds like in this case, no one did and neither did anyone in my Air Canada experience.
Cran said one of the worst stories has been about an Air Canada flight that spent 12 hours on the tarmac at Vancouver International Airport with its passengers trapped inside throughout the delay.
Some passengers have said they felt like "hostages" because they were told they had to stay on the plane.
"Keeping people prisoner on an airplane for 12 hours on the tarmac is absolutely outrageous, I don't know how [Air Canada] think they had the right to do that," Cran said.
"Keeping people prisoner on an airplane for 12 hours on the tarmac is absolutely outrageous, I don't know how [Air Canada] think they had the right to do that," Cran said.
You guys need to check your biases at the door!
An incident from 8 years ago is all you have? Rules have changed a lot since than. Regardless passengers tend to exaggerate sometimes. Once had a passenger yell at a flight attendant because we were waiting for crw to marshal us in. Had he bothered to look at his watch he would have seen that we were 15 minutes ahead of schedule. She even explained it to him but to no avail.
No doubt these were total clusters but most of the time from what I see things go pretty smoothly. I go weeks with nothing going wrong than randomly on one day nothing can go right. It happens. Hopefully Sunwong learns from this so it NEVER happens again!
After 8 hours I'd get up pop the door blow the shoot and get the f*ck off that airplane. This is ridiculous and there are simply no excuses to keep pax onboard a plane that long on the ground.
Good thing everything that went wrong that day was out of the control of Sunwing then...
Weather... Check!
Ground Handler issues.... Check!
Big ass pile of snow blocking the jetway... Check!
Customs-bound pax had enough of waiting... Check!
I'd love to hear what Sunwing could've done here... Because this was totally out of it's control...
Teacher, you have rare days where everything goes wrong. Is it ever 100% the fault of the airline you work for? Usually factors outside of the control of the airline... I think the benefit of the doubt can be given here, like it was due "8 years ago". Besides, Sunwing is a charter operator, not a large airline with crew bases and resources everywhere in the country. They don't have all the resources like Jazz or AC or WS have. They can't forecast the daily sickness rates of Swissport or where the snowbanks are formed on the apron when snow clearing ops are in effect.
Yesterday I had a gate change on me last minute landing in YUL because of an international flight having a medical emerg - at least that was the excuse given. Had to use the darn "Pas Trop Vites again. Our pax grumbled and complained, but hey, out of our control. That's what aviation is all about. Reducing the number of things out of your control so that you can do the flight safely. In the end, nobody was hurt and more than enough passengers were healthy enough to recount their story to the CBC and CTV.
As for popping the door... Kinda hard to do, when you can't get the jetway or airstairs to the plane because of piles of snow in the way... Safer to keep pax on than to use the evac slides.
This whole thing is a mountain out of a molehill. Simply a regrettable chain of events out of the operator's control. And I would expect to hear about this embarrassing situation happening again in 2016 to someone else, somewhere else.
OTOH...
Now I know why 10cm of snow (1cm in YVR) is called snowmageddon in YYZ. Reliability of others around you jumps out of the window in tricky situations.
