Originally Posted by
oscarisapc
My question is why? Is there any law that says you can't leave a flight until it has reached its declared destination?... Any comments?
No there is no law, rule or regulation that says pax cannot leave a flight at an unscheduled intermediate point. Think of 11 September 2011 when literally hundreds of US bound flights landed at Canadian airports on both coasts. There may be customs / airport issues but since Gatwick has a large sterile area these probably were not a factor here. The decision likely rested with the Airline who had an impossible task estimating or even guessing when they could go.
in this case I would say that Air India very much wanted to complete the flight to Heathrow as soon as possible. Of course that was where many passengers wanted and expected to go, that's where AI infrastructure was, and that's where the new crew and passengers were for the next sector. Selectively deplaning for people happy with Gatwick also problematic due baggage reconciliation. Even ignoring security issues passengers would not be happy without their bags for a couple of days (or having to get out to Heathrow to get them)
Weather is very unpredictable and after Heathrow reduced flights to deal with the fog various aircraft had to divert. All of them would be put into a queue to complete their flights ASAP but with Heathrow full from 0800 to 2200 squeezing them in once the flow control was lifted would have been very difficult.
A typical creeping delay. Everyone hoping that the flight could head off to Heathrow at a moment's notice once flow control was removed. Tick, tick, tick, Disembarking would be counter-productive as they wouldn't be even in the queue if they were not ready to go. An hour later, still no improvement, an hour after that, things may have eased and diverted flights being 'slotted-in' but likely a long list. An hour later the original crew probably timed out. Decision made to call crew in from Heathrow by surface means, taking flight out of 'ready to go status'. Finding transport etc. would take some time but probably not more than an hour to an hour 1/2 getting them their. Decision made not to disembark passengers to be ready to go when new crew arrived. New crew delayed another hour at security, passport control, flight briefing, etc.
So new crew on board and 'ready to go' 5 1/2 hours after landing. Fog at Heathrow gets back again - crew waits for OK to go for another 2 1/2 hours and off they go 1/2 hour to Heathrow and you are up to nine hours.
Believe that there was a twitterer on board providing a running commentary. Otherwise this would never have 'news'. 9 hours is probably a little extreme and making decisions on what should have happened, in hindsight, is quite easy. However it isn't on the day without an accurate crystal ball.