rookiepilot,
Admittedly, I am at a disadvantage here, because I don't know (or care) what the f$ck you do for a living, and thus cannot try and find a forum that pertains to that field, if it exists, and then proceed to lecture you on how to do your job from an equally uninformed viewpoint as you do mine. Alas. Unlike you, I do not judge the precise actions of the crew of Air Transat on that day, as I was not there, and choose to base my speculation of what happened on personal experience, not the never-inaccurate, never-sensationalist-or-biased media reporting of aviation. *cough*
The crux of your article seems to be that either Air Transat management or the Ottawa Airport Authority dropped the ball and both blame the other. And if I have to choose between who I find more trustworthy, competent, or credible: a private company with a profit motive and obviously only financial and PR downside to this delay? Or a quasi-privatized, unaccountable unelected
bloated entity like an airport authority in Canada, hmmm...? My own reading between the lines tells me that more likely YOW was dragging their feet to make the point that AT shouldn't be using third-party services over their (YOW's) own services. Don't outright ignore them - that would get people angry at you, and probably be legally actionable - but keep AT at the back of the line, let 'em wait. I mean hey, it's not like an entitled employee group in Canada would ever use the public's misery for leverage, is it? That would be unheard of! lol Unions are MASTERS at this sort of tactic.
The YOW statement trying to distance themselves from the refuelling and handling arrangements is disingenuous - they may not deal directly with the airlines but they most certainly have their finger on the scale as to priority of access and who gets what! Just ask yourself WHAT or HOW would Air Transat gain from purposely inconveniencing their pax? If you think they honestly believe that saving a few bucks is worth it for this media shitstorm you'd have to be a bit thick. AT is not exactly a new entrant to the market.
So I'll leave y'all to your ruminations of that flight and just summarize what will happen should you find yourself a passenger on a flight I am responsible for that ends up in an unfortunate delay like this.
If you are in genuine medical need of assistance, (because apparently, the threshold for human survivability is now six unexpected hours in an aircraft, and Ottawa is of course, located in sub-Saharan Africa, and an airliner is of course, exactly like a parked car, with temperatures that "steadily rose to above 23C", *gasp*), I will certainly avail every possible resource to help you. I will not (unlike this Air Transat captain, according to your vast expertise) sit idly by, callously disregarding your near-death status, not "doing his job".
If you call 911 because you're upset and thirsty, I couldn't care less - it has nothing to do with "usurping anyone's authority", I just will hope to see you legally charged, as you should be, for using an important service as you say, "frivolously".
However, if you choose to disregard or disobey the instructions of the crew doing their very best to look after you, and deploy a slide, thus endangering the safety of the rest of the passengers, I will do everything in my power to make sure you reap the maximum consequences of your actions. I'm sure you'll understand, since a constant theme of yours is preaching about accountability.
Now, I won't make some pompous statement like "I trust that will be the last word on the subject" harrumph harrumph, since you already did that earlier. But it's an absolutely beautiful morning here in Prague, and on a hot day in summer there are few things in the world more stirring to observe than Czech women strolling around Charles Bridge. So I can assure you this will be MY last word on this thread.
Toodles.
I’m still waiting for my white male privilege membership card. Must have gotten lost in the mail.
