United Airlines Passengers Stranded on Tarmac for 15 Hours: Whose Fault Was It?
Whose fault is it, really? That’s usually the question foremost on everyone’s minds following a high-profile airline flub, with bystanders airing their views on social media as vehemently as the ill-fated passengers who were onboard (or bumped off, denied boarding or deplaned, depending on the incident).
Airline PR reps tend to milk this loophole to offset blame – and they’re not completely in the wrong. Statistically speaking, the majority of flight delays are beyond the airline’s control. Data from the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows that only six out of every 100 delays is due to airline-specific factors like mechanical breakdowns, mysterious crew no-shows, or late-arriving aircraft.
Even so, when delays occur, it’s often the way the airline handles the situation that aggravates customers, most of whom are generally understanding that air travel is subject to weather conditions and air traffic.
Take the incident over the weekend billed “the worst travel nightmare,” which left United Airlines passengers en route to Hong Kong stranded on the tarmac for over 15 hours at Goose Bay airport in Northeastern Canada. The original flight out of Newark Airport was forced to make an emergency landing at a remote air force base in Canada after a passenger fell ill.
However, the flight couldn’t continue on to Hong Kong because a cargo door was frozen after temperatures dipped to minus 25 degrees. What’s more, passengers couldn’t disembark because the plane had landed during overnight hours when border agents were off duty, and the small airport wasn’t equipped to handle 250 passengers.
“It has been cold and a bit hungry, but otherwise it was all right,” one passenger, Chris Liew, told CBS New York. “I think everybody understood that the circumstances that nobody could really control.”
Another customer, Cherie Martorana Neve, was not so sympathetic. “The entire way they have treated us from troubleshooting, communicating and actual treatment (or lack of) by most of the flight attendants has been not only unprofessional, but downright disgusting,” she wrote in a Facebook post.”This is not an airline. It’s more like a prison.”
Nearing 8 hours of sitting in a @united plane on a tarmac in Newfoundland and Labrador, waiting for the supposed “rescue plane” to arrive. But Google Maps tells me I could walk to New York in about 20 days, so keeping that option on the table
— Steven Lau (@unoslau) January 20, 2019
United Airlines told passengers that a rescue plane was coming to get them, but no one could say when. When food supplies ran low, officials from Goose Bay provided passengers with water and snacks. At one point, the exasperated captain read aloud the email address of United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz and told passengers to email him and explain their frustration.
“Send him an email right now and tell him how mad you are,” Sonjay Dutt, a professional wrestler who was onboard, recalls the captain saying, the Wall Street Journal reports.
A statement from the airline provided to Fortune magazine was markedly less remorseful – even defensive: “We apologized to our customers for this experience – our crew and operations did everything possible to assist customers during this delay.“
Referring to the emergency landing, a spokesman told the Wall Street Journal: “The crew did a pretty decent job and used their training to save the life of someone who as having a medical emergency.”
Finally, 16 hours later, a second plane arrived at the base to fly the stranded passengers back to Newark Airport. Twenty-seven hours later, they were back where they started. Backup aircraft large enough for 250 passengers aren’t easy to come by, and airlines keep their fleets in such high rotation that there’s rarely one to spare.
Here comes backup! 17 hours late but you know what they say, better late then @united @United_179 pic.twitter.com/mBafTAvNR6
— Eitan Magid (@EitanMagid) January 20, 2019
United Airlines rebooked many of the passengers and reimbursed others for the inconvenience. According to a passenger CBS News spoke with, all passengers were given a full refund, a $500 credit, a $100 gift card and vouchers for food and a hotel stay. “Some passengers said that’s not enough and plan to take action against the airline,” the outlet reported.
Even if customers understand that the incident – and the lack of information regarding a rescue plane – was not the fault of the airline, they still want the ability to hold a stakeholder accountable, and that stakeholder is the airline itself.
Given that airlines know better than anyone else the myriad of factors that can disrupt a flight from leaving on time and landing safely, they need to be proactive about the stakeholders they work with – airport personnel, air traffic control, suppliers etc. – and optimizing the things they can control, such as on-time arrivals, baggage handling and customer complaints. That way, when an unavoidable incident does occur, they’ve fostered enough goodwill to maintain customer loyalty – deservedly so.
At the time of publication, United Airlines has not released a statement publicly acknowledging the incident.
