Air Canada flight from hell!

[rotornut]

Air Canada passengers demand answers after chaotic journey in the skies - Montreal - CBC News (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/air-canada-flight-antigua-1.4165527)

[Piltdown Man]

These people sound unlucky. But once a safe landing was made (I'm ignoring the standard crap spouted by the main witness) the airline the started scoring own goals. When things have gone to worms, like the schedule, open up the bar trolleys and galleys and start giving stuff away. Then start being honest. Tell your passengers what needs to be done and how long it might take but at the same time give no guarantees, Murphy and Sod will get you very quickly if you do.

[PAXboy]

Indeed Piltdown Man. It is reamarkable that corporates and govtds have still not learned how much access to the media has change din the last 10 years. In the UK, the prime minister is just beginnning to find out ...

[DaveReidUK]

Any airline can get itself in a hole.

The clever ones know when to stop digging.

[Hotel Tango]

Quite frankly, I thought that we might die at that moment.

I thought the DM had copyrights to this sentence!

[WHBM]

It's a strange feature that carriers in North America, unlike in the rest of the world, seem averse to using handling agents. As a result, if there aren't your own staff on duty at a point, everything seems to fall to pieces.

[B2N2]

Some are upset with the pilot. A passenger filmed a conversation with him in San Juan where he talked about his 30 years of experience and suggested a less experienced pilot may not have landed the plane safely.

Really? What a tool.

[Hotel Tango]

Just hold your horses there B2N2. I'd put a few Bucks that it wasn't an exact quote from a passenger with an agenda!

[ExXB]

From NavCan daily incident report:

TSB Report#A17F0127: C-FYJI, an Airbus A319 aircraft operated by Air Canada, was conducting flight ACA961 from Antigua, Antigua and Barbuda (TAPA) to Toronto, ON (CYYZ). During cruise flight approximately 285 nautical miles North West of San Juan, Puerto Rico (TJSJ), the flight crew noticed that there was a problem with the right fuel tank feed and that the engines could be fed from the left main and center tanks only. This situation resulted in a fuel imbalance that could not be corrected. The flight crew elected to divert to San Juan and declared a PAN PAN as a precaution. The flight crew performed an overweight landing without further event. The operator’s maintenance is investigating the cause of the fuel feed problem.

[PAXboy]

Sounds like another 'flight from hell' that was handled very well and safely? :zzz:

[DaveReidUK]

Two views of the same flight - it's not really surprising that the news article focuses in the passengers' experience whereas the TSB report is only interested in the operational/safety aspects.

[SeenItAll]

It's a strange feature that carriers in North America, unlike in the rest of the world, seem averse to using handling agents. As a result, if there aren't your own staff on duty at a point, everything seems to fall to pieces.

I can assure you that NA airlines are not at all adverse to using handling agents. Other than for stations with significant traffic, NA airlines have been eager to outsource ground ops to contract personnel. The problem generally arises when a flight has to land at an airport to which the carrier does not ordinarily operate. Thus, there are neither company nor contract personnel to handle the PAX. Air Canada does not fly to SJU, so would have had no one in place to handle the flight.