An Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi to San Francisco turned into a nightmare when fog in Abu Dhabi resulted in the passengers being stuck on the tarmac for 12 hours.
Just as Etihad Airways Flight 183 was about to take off, Abu Dhabi International Airport was shut down by extremely dense fog. According to KPIX-TV in San Francisco and CBS News, Etihad officials wouldn’t allow any of the passengers to get off even when the plane ran out of water. Never mind that there were a large number of children and seniors on the plane.
The passengers were left to blow off steam on Twitter.
EY183 on runway for 9 hours. Terrible service and crew won’t serve food. Now further delays as they replace (unserved) food. @EtihadAirways
? Sujatha (@SuzeTwtr) January 3, 2015
Hey @EtihadAirways, I’ve been sitting on EY 183 in Abu Dhabi for 10 hours now. THIS IS NOT OK. There are kids and seniors on this flight. ? Ravali Reddy (@ravaliareddy) January 3, 2015
@EtihadAirways – And the flight was out of water for a while. No one’s answering questions, and we have people who haven’t eaten in 18 hours
? Ravali Reddy (@ravaliareddy) January 3, 2015
@EtihadAirways – If you were truly doing all possible, then we wouldn’t be sitting here tired and hungry. ? Ravali Reddy (@ravaliareddy) January 3, 2015
The plane finally arrived in San Francisco at 6:30 p.m. Pacific Time on Saturday night. For those of you keeping score, the passengers spent a whopping 28 hours on the plane. The wait was equally harrowing for loved ones in San Francisco. Molly Rogers told KPIX that she tried to reach someone at Eithad for word about the flight, since her 11-year-old daughter was on the plane. Incredibly, she couldn’t get in touch with anyone from the airline.
KGO-TV in San Francisco reported that passengers got similar run-arounds from Eithad.? Passenger Ajay Pahwa said that Etihad’s Website didn’t have any updated information on the flight, and their phone number put callers “in a loop.” He was forced to use a fellow passenger’s cell phone to text updates to his parents. Another passenger, Thomas Piani, said that he was told on numerous occasions that the plane was about to take off, to no avail.
In a statement, Etihad said that the fog forced it to cancel 20 flights in Abu Dhabi that night. The airline added that it is working to restore a normal schedule, and has waived cancellation and change fees until further notice. It’s not nearly enough for several passengers, many of whom say they will never fly on Etihad again.
Had this happened in the United States, Etihad would be facing some whopping fines. Federal regulations bar airlines from leaving passengers on the tarmac for more than than four hours on international flights. Any delay longer than that could bring fines of up to $27,000 per passenger. Airlines are also required to provide adequate food and water during delays. It says a lot that such regulations are even necessary. Sadly, those rules don’t apply to foreign carriers overseas. Perhaps it’s time for these standards to be applied internationally. No one should have to endure what the passengers on Flight 183 endured. Period, full stop.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
