Zapatas Blood,
In case you have forgotten, PVG is a Qantas MAIN airport. It has regular services there. Qantas has a contract with a ground services company to provide support for passengers.
I have no idea exactly what has transpired here, but passengers bailing up crew and physically restraining them suggests that something has gone very wrong here. The big question is: did Jetstar get on the blower to its "parent" and say "we need to use that ground support company." I hope so. Are standing procedures in place for such a contingency at PVG? Is there a "price" JQ has to pay QF for this? Were those staff present or not? Even if you don't have a standing arrangement at a non-MAIN airport, the company can (and does) get on the blower to the airport in question and "buys" such support, eg the Istanbuls, etc.
The ground staff should take over responsibility for pax once the aircraft is on the ground. The aircrew should NOT be responsible - they need to go get minimum rest and be ready to take the aircraft onto the destination as soon as legally possible.
Having diverted to a few non-MAIN airports (international ones) during my QF time, I know that QF is right on the ball usually with this. Yes, I think the full service QF does handle it pretty well; that "legacy" experience shows through at such times.
This incident smells of two things: (1) poor organisation on the ground by JQ, but ALSO (2) obnoxious customers. The latter will not handle the former well. The passengers will tolerate the aircrew gathering up their bags to head to a hotel provided those pax are being looked after by someone, by ground staff, and that they know the plan. In the absence of this it is not surprising that obnoxious pax will fly off the handle.
What is most unexcusable is if the police, etc are that bad that they do zip all. God help us in the Chinese 21st century....
Last edited by Ushuaia; 1st Nov 2012 at 02:35.