EKLAWYER I agree with you. If you are on the tarmac and inform the crew that you want to get off, then surely and legally they cannot force you to get airborne and transport you to somewhere you do not wish to go! Besides all that it is a flight safety issue as well as all the legal angles. In the big picture, I would love to see if anyone claims that they insisted to deplane at original destination LHR and were "FORCED" to go to LGW for the sake of the airlines poor managent of communication and operation. I would say that if the aircraft landed first in LGW then the pax could not force the plane airborne to LHR. But to land at LHR (DEST) and be forced to another airfield, that is beyond belief and the passenger certainly comes waaaaay Doooooooowwwwwwwnn the order of priorities when it comes to operational decisions here.
They should have deplaned at LHR no cleaning ETC and then gone straight to LGW, the aircraft would have been back airborne in 1 hour and well inside the curfew time. Clearly they had the diversion fuel (which they used so no refuelling) and it would have taken less than 30 mins to prepare the flight plan etc and loadsheet, even do a div loadsheet! How long to get the pax and bags off, 4o mins? Airborne in an hour easilly!! Then again we all know that the best decisions are not always made when the people they affect are not consulted first....THE CREW!!
Chronicle of a delay (By the Independent on Sunday News paper)
All times BST...
1.15pm: Emirates flight 005 due to leave Dubai. The captain says that there will be a 20-minute delay
2.20pm: Plane leaves, just over an hour late
9.40pm: Touchdown at Heathrow
10pm: Captain announces that, because of curfew restrictions at Heathrow, the decision had been taken to divert to Gatwick – but that no one had told him
10.45pm: Emirates 006 is due to depart Heathrow, destination Dubai, on the same aircraft. Its passengers are en route to Gatwick by coach
10.50pm: Emirates 005 pushes back from stand at Heathrow for the "short flight to Gatwick"
11pm: Joins a queue of aircraft waiting to take off. The captain announces the wait is likely to be 10 minutes
11.25pm: Still taxiing. "I think we're going by road," said one passenger, shortly before we lined up for take-off, after one hour and 45 minutes on the ground
12.27am: Touch down at Gatwick
12.40am: Four hours late, and at the wrong airport, EK005 finally arrives at a distant stand on pier 6, the furthest gate in the entire airport from passport control
1.15am: The first piece of luggage arrives on the carousel at Gatwick. Twelve hours have elapsed since Emirates 005 was scheduled to depart for the seven-hour flight to Heathrow
2.30am: Emirates 006 departs from Gatwick, nearly four hours behind schedule. Many of the 335 passengers on board will arrive in Dubai to discover they have missed their onward connections