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Delta passengers fall ill while stuck for hours during blistering Vegas heatwave
- gnicholas 3y agoIt says it was 111 degrees, but presumably that’s the outside temperature, right? What would the temperature inside the plane be? It must have been pretty hot given that people were starting to pass out.
- monero-xmr 3y agoI had a nightmare flight recently - 48 hours to fly 6 hours. Direct flight canceled, overnight in hotel, missed connections, total nightmare. My assistant tried for an entire day to get reimbursed by various airlines for the problems and we got half the money back but somehow United stonewalled us. Don’t even know how to complain. Bottom line is - not going to travel for at least a year, and told my family to research places we can drive to. Flying is an absolute mess and I’m not going to do it anymore.
- babyshake 3y agoThe worst part about this type of thing is it's not like there's a particular person you can be mad at. You can only be mad at the entire system while it tells you "your call is very important to us".
- nocoiner 3y agoI called United recently with a question about a $1200 flight credit that was evidently unusable, seemingly due to an apparent failure in one of their systems. I called the customer service line and guffawed out loud when the automated voice told me the wait time was over two hours. 2 hours and 45 minutes later, I gave up. You win, United. Enjoy the $1200 from my Covid flight cancellation. I guess I figured I’d at least get to use it given that whole $50 billion bailout, but I guess you needed the money more than I did.
- adastra22 3y agoFor future cases, the best strategy here is to call them the instant their phone lines open up. For a west coast person this can sometimes mean calling at 5am or something.
- safety1st 3y agoThis is unconventional, but what about writing them a letter? Address it to the CEO and mention that you're also sending a copy to the FTC. I presume someone is going to open that mail, and while this isn't going to resolve anything quickly, the advantage is you don't have to wait on the phone for hours...
- kibwen 3y ago> told my family to research places we can drive to If you're on the east coast, consider a train instead. At least between DC and Boston, train schedules are more reliable than plane schedules, and are more comfortable than driving. (And if you're not in the US at all, I probably don't need to remind you that trains exist.)
- nocoiner 3y agoThis is hilarious - I flew United recently for the first time in 2-3 years. And good lord, I thought it had been bad before, but somehow the potential was there for it to become worse than I ever could have imagined. Surly crew, comically dreary cabin, unimaginably terrible “food,” and approximately one drink service per three hours of flight. The only saving grace was that recline seemed to be broken on many of the seats, so at least the legroom wasn’t terrible. I never had a, uh, opportunity to fly Aeroflot, but this is a lot what I imagine it must have been like. I hate the Southwest cattle call, but it’s a no-BS consistent experience… if they happen to fly where you want to go without having to make two connections and a non-plane-change extra landing. And Delta still somehow seems to be a generally nice experience, though that only really works for me if I’m flying to one of their hubs.
- dullcrisp 3y agoI don’t recall having any bad experiences on Aeroflot.
- Rebelgecko 3y agoBe wary of survivorship bias. Many of the people who were on Aeroflot planes flown by drunks or children aren't around to share their experiences.
- ilamont 3y agoI recently flew international for the first time since 2019. Boston to Taipei, which normally takes 25 to 30 hours, door-to-door, and cost between $1200 and $1500 pre-Covid, took 83 hours after multiple delays. This was a $2000 ticket too. The worst part was rebooking at JFK for an international airline with insufficient local capacity and ground staff. And then getting the runaround on hotel reimbursements.
- T3OU-736 3y agoHrm. Wonder if the high temps were because the plane was only running its APU (auxiliary power unit - a small, non-thrust-producing turbine) (to conserve fuel, presumably), and so was unable to provide HVAC to the main cabin. FlightAware says Delta 555 is usually served by a B757-200, not sure how the HVAC is laid out there, but given the power draw of HVAC systems, seems unlikely that just an APU can provide enough power to deal with 111°F (and likely higher, since the plane was on a nice hot tarmac, with heat reflection not helping matters any). It would be interesting to know if the pilots were aware of the conditions, requested guidance from the company, and were told to conserve fuel. (This os pure speculation on my part).
- hotpotamus 3y agoMy assumption has been that planes mostly don't have air conditioning. I was stuck on the ground due to technical issues once and so they brought in an air conditioning truck to keep things comfortable (this was in South Texas). I thought they brought in bleed air from somewhere in the engine which would be pretty cool at altitude. I'm sure someone who actually knows about airplanes could chime in and correct me.
- myself248 3y agoI'm no pilot, but my understanding is that airplane HVAC is driven by pressurized air from compressor bleed (running through a device that manipulates pressure and thus temperature, through various heat exchangers, to produce heat or cooling as needed), and doesn't run at all from the APU. Cool air on the ground is from a duct under the jetway. Once they push back, they're basically unconditioned until the main engines are at power.
- nocoiner 3y agoI don’t know if my bias is affected by the last half dozen or so flights I’ve been on during this unseasonably hot last few months, but it seems to me like temperature regulation on planes on the ground is way more unpleasant than it used to be. My recollection is that, occasionally, there’d be a problem keeping the plane cool, and they’d ask you to power the shades and open the A/C vent (and this was generally in places like Phoenix or Vegas, so, understandable). Now I feel like this is the case on every hot weather flight, regardless of airline, even in fairly temperate climates. I don’t know if this is a cost cutting thing, a function of modern aircraft design, or something I’ve hallucinated, but my strong impression is that the airlines have somehow managed to make sitting on the ground in a plane even more unpleasant than it used to be.
- koolba 3y agoThis is such an easy problem to solve. Just pass a law that any delay longer than X minutes automatically entitles all passengers to MAX(Y, Z% x Ticket Price) paid in cash to the passengers. Once there’s a quantifiable cost that cannot be escaped, airlines will be forced to solve the problem.
- nonethewiser 3y agoAirlines aren’t really the cause though
- brutusborn 3y agoThe airline made the choice to put people in an overheating plane for 3 hours instead of the terminal. Of course they don’t have control over the weather but they do control how they react to it.
- bmmayer1 3y agoOr they just...will cancel flights altogether to avoid fees or won't fly routes that are likely to be delayed often.
- koolba 3y agoExactly. The problem will be solved. A route that regularly has multi hour delays on the tarmac due to congestion at terminal should not exist. If the service is being offered it better be capable of being rendered.
- IKantRead 3y agoI was recently stuck on the tarmac for nearly 3 hours over night. It was an awful experience (especially since they were unable to give us a real estimate, we kept hearing 15-30 mins for the entire duration). I would have much rather they simply cancel the flight than have to go through that. The issue is that all these airlines are running things with much lower tolerance for variance in the system than they used to. They just don't have the resources to support that any more. Rather than lose money by being honest about what they can handle, they'll let passengers suffer. The reason is obvious: no matter how awful my experience so far, I'll continue to keep flying. I suspect air travel will get worse until the limit case that it's so awful people start refusing to fly altogether.
- snake_plissken 3y agoMan you read these airline "stuck on the tarmac for hours" stories and it makes you want to explode in rage. Even if it's only 50% true, this one is next level; can't remember a story remotely resembling this situation. And what can you do? I can and do write 'dem letters to my Reps and Senators. But the feeling of hopelessness can be intense with these things. Corporate priorities stressing us out and leaving us in the lurch, over and over, again and again.
- trevyn 3y agoRemember how after 9/11, everyone took personal responsibility for potentially detaining hijackers in-flight? You could take personal responsibility for having a medical emergency when stuck on tarmac with no air conditioning.
- 000ooo000 3y agoHow exactly might one take personal responsibility in this scenario? Just stop having a medical emergency I guess?
- rokkitmensch 3y agoComrade, the responsibility is to /have/ a medical emergency.
- piva00 3y agoI don't understand what you are saying, is it a joke?
- wincy 3y agoMy wife was returning home from Dallas on a flight delayed for thunderstorms. The plane was completely full. They sat on the tarmac for 2 hours before takeoff and to conserve fuels turned off the air conditioner “to avoid refueling” the pilot said. The elderly woman sitting next to my wife vomited then passed out, and they had to taxi back to a gate and drop her off to get medical attention. My wife said it was maybe 80 degrees on the plane. I can imagine higher temperatures would create more issues.
- nonethewiser 3y ago80 degrees and humid as shit with all those people
- boyter 3y agoSaving fuel seems highly likely to me. My understanding is that's the cause of the additional turbulence you see these days, since they glide into land rather than stepping down to avoid turbulence. I think they also have planes more tightly packed now subjecting you to more wind vortex from the other planes.
- nradov 3y agoThat isn't what causes turbulence. Turbulence is caused primarily by natural winds, especially near storms or mountains. There can also be momentary turbulence when passing through the wake of a large aircraft, but rules on separation haven't changed significant in years. Commercial airlines don't shut off their engines and glide to land. ATC usually directs them to step down their altitude from cruise in increments until they intercept a cleared approach. Then they make a smooth, continuous descent with minor variations in power to stay on the assigned slope.
- boyter 3y agoMy understanding from someone who knows about this (please forgive my lack of knowledge as I am attempting to relay what they told me) was that they used to step down when going to land at fixed points to avoid turbulence and hold those levels. The levels were picked to provide the customers a comfortable ride, based on reports from other planes and whatever other sources they have. They have since been told to save on fuel and so don't do this, not "gliding" but lowering the thrust to save fuel when descending which exposes people to the rougher air for longer periods of time. Please correct my understanding if this is not the case.
- msie 3y agoThe pilot should be held responsible for the welfare of his passengers.
- stevev 3y agoSitting on the tarmac and inhaling jet exhaust gases is dangerous.
- amerkhalid 3y agoHaving recently flown with toddler and preschooler, I cannot imagine how miserable the kids on this plane would have been. Babies can overheat easily and do permanent brain damage. This is just inhumane.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]