… afraid there is a slight delay sir..

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  • Anonymous
    Guest

    BigDog.
    Participant

    Pilot wanting to get their delivery of kachoris…
    Helium Weather Balloons with a sofa attached….
    Bill Clinton’s hair styling …
    Cabin Crew flipped…
    Turtles crossing…

    are some of the weird reasons behind delays, plus a few more

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/9994930/Weird-reasons-for-aircraft-delays.html.

    Have you any gems to add?


    canucklad
    Participant

    I was delayed at LHR for an hour or so acouple of winters ago…all because the De-icing vehicle broke down……

    Due to it being too cold to operate….

    Nice topic…I have many more going back to my childhood ! just need to engage my grey cells…


    esselle
    Participant

    On a BA Embraer due to carry us back to MAN from GVA, delayed due to an INOP windscreen wiper.


    HonestCrew
    Participant

    Few years ago a BA flight had to return to stand and two stewardesses off-loaded for fighting!
    Whilst chatting about their partners, one their husband, the other their fiance, the realisation hit that they were talking about the same guy.

    Things became physical and the chief purser had to make the call.
    The guy in question, a BA steward, wasn’t seen for quite a while after that.


    HonestCrew
    Participant

    Earlier this year, a BA flight from Tel Aviv had to return to stand when, during the safety demo, the crew noticed a passenger had a dog in her hand luggage.

    Anyone who has experienced the security procedures leaving TLV will also wonder how the hell the dog made it that far!


    FormerlyDoS
    Participant

    “Anyone who has experienced the security procedures leaving TLV will also wonder how the hell the dog made it that far!”

    They probably profiled it and found it had no evil intentions 😉


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    Once on arrival at LHR from CPT with BA, we could not get a dock so were sent to a remote stand. Buses arrived. Stairs placed. And we waited. And waited. About 30 minutes. The reason Cap’n gave was that the Health and Safety Inspector had not arrived to sign off the safe placing of the stairs!


    ZKSmith
    Participant

    The famous incident where two passengers refused to fly Qantas because there were no XL pyjamas in first class, resulting in delays whilst their bags were offloaded is still the most ridiculous reason for a delay I’ve heard.

    The strangest delay I’ve experienced was on a LGW – EDI flight. The 737 we were due to fly on had a technical fault so they operated the flight on a 777 instead. Nothing particularly unusual about that… until we landed and parked at a gate without a jet bridge at EDI, where we were unable to disembark for about 20 minutes because the ground crew were unable to find a set of stairs high enough to reach the door of the 777. Thankfully some suitable stairs were found eventually.


    jah2031
    Participant

    Nice idea for a thread. I’ve experienced quite a range with BA, mostly on LHR-SEA route

    – Another windscreen wiper (1.5 hours, dry and sunny by the time we arrived)
    – Cargo doors frozen shut(!) – EU261 helped me get over this …
    – Unable to remove airbridge at LHR

    Also recently experienced 3hrs on the ground waiting for early morning LHR-MUC:

    – Push back #1: Original AC experienced (multiple) hydraulic failures
    – To stand: several passengers off-load
    – Bus to replacement AC
    (so far irritating but forgiveable)
    – Push back #2: Left bag in hold for off-loaded passenger
    – To stand …
    – Push back #3: 3hrs late departing. 2h50 on landing. No EU261. Sad …

    In BA’s defence though, they paid EU comp for the cargo doors without hassle and provided periodic doses of ex gratis avios.


    openfly
    Participant

    The most irritating pointless remark for a delay-reason….”we apologise for the delay which is due to the late inbound aircraft” ….yeah, exactly, otherwise we wouldn’t be sitting here…give us the truth….tell us there are leaves on the runway! Give us the truth….mind you that is probably kept from the frontline staff, who know less than the passengers!


    travelworld
    Participant

    Not an amusing reason, but genuine nonetheless- a baggage handler got himself wedged between the conveyer and the hold of the plane at LHR, badly injuring himself in the process. All passengers had to walk from the rear of the aircraft- a BA 777- to the nose to try to slant the airframe forward. It didn’t work and he had to be cut out.

    The crew were first on hand and administered first aid to the injured worker, which clearly shook them up. Nonetheless, once we had changed aircraft they crewed the replacement aircraft to Beijing. I wrote to BA to thank them for all the hard work they did in difficult circumstances. Customer Services rang me to say that I wouldn’t get compensation. When I told them that I wasn’t after that, I just wanted to express my thnaks to the crew for hard work in difficult circumstances, I was told “that’s alright then, we can close our file’”. Whether the crew got the thanks I had expressed I know not…

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