JetBlue Flight Pilot Pleaded for Help During Tarmac Ordeal

[marmar]

The pilot of a JetBlue plane stuck on the tarmac for seven hours full of increasingly angry and frustrated passengers pleaded for assistance from airport officials, telling them he "can't seem to get any help from our own company."

"I got a problem here on the airplane, I'm gonna need to have the cops on board," the pilot, Capt. Thompson said, according to cockpit recordings posted online. "There's a cop car sitting in front of me right here right now. I need some air stairs brought over here and the cops brought onboard the airplane.

"Look, you know we can't seem to get any help from our own company, I apologize for this, but is there any way you can get a tug and a tow bar out here to us and get us towed somewhere to a gate or something," he said. "I don't care. Take us anywhere."

ABC News has learned that the Department of Transportation's Aviation Consumer Protection division is investigating the delay involving Jet Blue Flight 504, as well as a couple of other flights, that occurred Saturday. The investigation began this morning. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/jetblue-flight-pilot-pleaded-help-during-tarmac-ordeal-151934980.html

[LonePirate]

1. I'm surprised someone didn't open the emergency exits and slide down the chutes.

[mopinko]

3. that's what i couldn't figure.

i would have, for sure.

[laundry_queen]

12. Those chutes aren't like a playground slide

They are quite far up off the ground and have quite a drop at the end. People get injured on them, which is why they are for emergencies only.

However, in this case, I am thinking if the pilot deployed the chutes even if people didn't go down them, he'd have gotten attention pretty quickly.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. The pilots don't deploy the slides.

They are attached to the emergency doors and inflate (either automatically or by pulling a handle) when the doors open.

I've slid down a couple of those slides. It's fairly terrifying, and if you aren't damn careful you'll sprain an ankle at the bottom.

[laundry_queen]

20. I'm aware of that.

I'm sure, though, that if he gave the order, the rest of the flight crew would open the doors.

[frazzled]

2. Flying now like taking the Megabus

... which has been known to break down and then dump passengers at a roadside motel lobby in Nowhere, Pachutch, with no further help about how or when there will ever be another one.

[marmar]

5. Yep. That happened to me on Megabus.......

..... six hours at a no-tell motel before a replacement Megabus showed up.

[rdking647]

4. what should be done but wont

The DOT should announce that on June 1st jet blue will be suspended from flying for 1 week due to what they did to their passengers..in addition they will be fined 86 million dollars (all of their q3 operating profit)
this way no current reservations are affected since jet blue only makes reservations up to the end of april.

the loss of revenue for a 1 week grounding and the fine will put and end to that crap from happening ever again on any airline.

[laundry_queen]

13. Exactly.

Until it is devastating to their bottom line, they won't change a bit. They'll just build the cost of fines into their business plan and raise ticket prices accordingly. :puke:

[MicaelS]

17. Agree completely...

Something like this is the only way to get their attention.

[MurrayDelph]

6. This is why

when I have to travel between Portland and Los Angeles, I drive.

It is theoretically longer, but give me the freedom to take a lot more luggage, choose my stopovers, and I don't have to be scanned or groped by strangers in public.

[riderinthestorm]

7. I know the story says they didn't have any gates available. But why not open one up

by pushing an empty plane out and letting these people get off?

I know the other excuse is that the plane couldn't get there because of the snow but if the ground crew was focused on one gate, one plane and one path to that gate, it seems as though they could have gotten them close enough to the terminal to either let them deplane via the stairs, the chute or even at the gate.

IT almost feels as though there was a lot of "learned helplessness" going on with this plane, the crew and the passengers. The airport didn't help matters either.

Jet Blue's non-response to it's own pilot's pleas would certainly have me pretty damn upset as part of the crew as well. What a shitty situation for them.

[Old and In the Way]

8. Between TSA and the new airline mentality with the way they treat their customers...

it's like they are trying to kill this transportation model. I can't believe Jet Blue would ignore their Captain for 7 hours...totally ridiculous.

[tawadi]

9. "Passengers said firefighters later boarded the plane to evacuate a paraplegic..."

"Passengers said firefighters later boarded the plane to evacuate a paraplegic who was having health issues."

http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-jetblue-stranded-hartford-20111030,1,2366209.story

This is my question. If they can evacuate 1 person why can't they evacuate everyone?

[Blue_Tires]

10. I thought some changes were made to prevent this from happening

after that incident in Minnesota a couple of years ago?

[Sgent]

14. Theorhetically

Jet Blue faces 27,500 dollar fine per passenger, we shall see what happens though.

[Shagbark Hickory]

11. High speed rail!!!! Now!!!

[thelordofhell]

15. How long until JefBlue fires Capt. Thompson??

Let the countdown commence

[quinnox]

16. oh hell no, I woudn't have stood for this as a passenger

I would have demanded to be let off, and told them yes please call the police and have them arrest me if thats what it takes. I'm not going to sit in a tin can on the runway for 7 fucking hours!

[tawadi]

18. Kick