TUI Captain Returns to Gate For Late Passengers
 

So shines a good deed in a weary world.


Can anyone remember the last time this happened?

Delighted for the happy end to the story, but in my airline in recent times we would have required flight ops permission to do stuff like that. If so, hats off to TUI Ops if the captain contacted home base. But if the Captain in TUI has the commercial authority to turn around like that, hats in the air to TUI who are still prepared to give the Captain the on the spot decision. Not many airlines do.

Used to be different in all airlines. Once you left home base you were like a ship trading cutter from the past, you did what was required to better the company and were given open authority. "No one is interested in the storms you weathered, but whether you brought in the ship". That is why we were paid a good sum, to make those decisions away from base, with only rudimentary HF contact with Ops. When we got contact we told them what we were doing, we did not ask.

Incoming from 21st century FLT OPS people...

For me, about 1971.

Got caught in the aftermath of an ice storm, catching a Continental flight STL-BOS for college, and our normal 2-hour drive to STL from rural Illinois took almost 3 hours on the slippery roads. Dashed to the counter about 2 minutes before scheduled departure, and asked them to let the gate know we were on the way down. The aircraft had just barely started pushback, and came back for me. ;)

No long security procedures in those days, of course.

My dad got an admonitory letter from Continental a week later, telling us it cost $20,000 an hour (1971 $$) to hold an aircraft that way. Good life lesson - I've always allowed an extra 60-90 minutes ever since, just in case.

Amazing what some chaps get away with and even admired.Had I ever pulled a stunt like that, it would have been handled, very aggressively by so-called :Management@. Mind you, if this bod was ex mill, liked boats and wore his trouser legs half way up his shin....good job !............

Surprised they had spare fuel to allow this.

Once upon a time, captains were expected to use their intiative and were congratulated for doing so. But that was a long time ago. C'est la vie.

I remember a story my father told me. Back in the 60s he was a regular passenger on BEA (out of a regional airport). One day, because of an unexpected and lengthy delay on his way to the airport, he thought he had missed his flight. (Please note that in those days checking in 20 mins before departure was the norm). As he entered the terminal the senior ticket agent was waiting for him holding his boarding card and, as he took the coupon out of father's ticket, escorted him to the waiting aircraft. My father asked if the flight had been delayed too, to which said agent replied that no it was on time and everyone was on board. But, since my father was never a no-show they decided to hold the departure for a short while! My father was both very grateful and embarrassed. More so when he later learned from a colleague on the flight that the Captain had announced a "short" delay to their departure due to "operational" reasons! :)

Them were the days lad!

Returning from OZ on BA 747 last stop Bahrain, we did a short stop in Rome to collect stranded passengers due to industrial dispute.
Proper BA service.

Is this the same story from earlier in September (TFS), or another one?

Rome stop - industrial dispute
 

(Italy) ... industrial dispute - I suspect the stop was scheduled.

Interresting that no one quesiton who were those passengers.
Color my cynical but wouldn't be surprised to learn they were not completely random.

I'd have been sacked had I done such a thing without didect instrution from Ops.
If pax can't turn up at the gate on time why should the rest who did be subjected to at least an hour's delay to accommodate the tardy ones? And the the knock-on effect of the 150+ return pax who are delayed in turn? And if a morning flight the next 300/600 pax on the following schedules?

Delaying pushback for late pax was a contentious call at the best of times and unless their late arrival at gate was clearly caused by airport-derived delays this was simpy not tolerated.

I expect there is more to this than we've been told.

Like the posters above I believe there is more to this than meets the eye. As a Dispatcher we wouldn’t dream of calling an aircraft back to stand unless it was absolutely necessary. One such reason would be HBR error. Is it possible the pax were late to the gate but aircraft mistakenly released with Hold bags still onboard? It’s quicker to open the hatch, chuck them on and LMC the difference rather than search the bingo cards and then start riffling through 200 bags..

Post Lockerbie, it become SOP (at least on this side of the pond) that if someone checked bags but didn't board, their bags had to be removed prior to dispatch. Happened to me - TWA 747 out of JFK. Someone checked bags then didn't board. We had to hold at the gate for an hour while they searched through hundreds of bags to find and remove the offending ones - by which time we'd missed our takeoff slot. It was the start of the most unpleasant flight I ever had as SLF. When we finally got in the que for takeoff, there were dozens of aircraft in front of us waiting their turn to takeoff. Then, they closed the departure runway due to severe thunderstorms :mad:. It was a hot summer day, the pilot shutdown the engines to save fuel, and the APU couldn't keep up. The 747 was full, so it got pretty miserable in there. We finally took off over six hours late :eek:
Perhaps something like this happened - and they left the gate without someone who had checked bags. If they did, it would probably be quicker to go back and let the passenger board than to find their bag and remove it.

Once at BHX I arrived late due to circumstances, the flight had already pushed back. With some quick thinking the onboard steps were lowered and I was lead out to board. About 1991 I think. I boarded to a round of sarcastic applause from the passengers, trying to hide and be unobtrusive for the rest of the flight. The lovely stewardess brought me a mini bottle of fizz and said she hoped that the rest of the day went better.
It was the BAC 1-11 to Milan but I can't remember in which version it was as it quickly changed from Birmingham European to Jersey European to BA.
A very big thank you to the crew, although it cost me as that was the weekend the girlfriend and I decided on a future together.
Edit: Yes I did have a checked bag on board which was incredible considering I only arrived at check-in 10 minutes before departure time..

Though that would imply that the head count hadn't detected the missing passenger.

Here's what Rog747 posted in the TUI thread in Airlines, Airports & Routes on 2 September - it's the same incident brought up again

In 1994 my SABENA flight from Kinshasa was late getting away due to a refuelling issue and en-route the captain announced a further delay because the French ATC were taking industrial action. When we eventually landed at Brussels it was pretty clear that I wasn't going to make my late evening onward connection to Heathrow. I glumly made my way to the desk (I think it was one of the British Midland brands) to arrange a flight for the following day only to be told that the aircraft was waiting for me. The staff whizzed me through departures at light speed and I took my seat under the accusing eyes of about 100 delayed passengers. It had been a bl**dy awful day and I was deeply grateful for BM's kindliness. It was their last flight of the day so obviously scheduled services wouldn't have been disrupted but even so, it was very good of them to hold.
I made a point of always flying with them when possible after that.

When I was cabin crew at a Big Airline; I was called from home stand by to cover a crew member who was removed from a fully loaded B737.
Despite arriving at the aircraft well within the allocated time, I was only able to wave the flight crew farewell from the terminal window as they pushed back. The skipper simply waved back.
I later learn't from the harassed crew that the skipper did not wish to return home late and was not prepared to wait any longer. He stuck to his guns despite me being only 30 foot or so from boarding.
How matters appear to have changed, returning from the threshold for regular passengers when once, a skipper would'nt even wait for his own crew.

> How matters appear to have changed, returning from the threshold for regular passengers when once, a skipper would'nt even wait for his own crew.
I don't think this this is going to be the norm now. As others have written above, there must be more to it than we are told. Especially since they could have taken free seats on another flight three hours later and would not have been stranded in their holiday paradise.

And what about the other 200 passengers who boarded on time and some of which may have missed their connecting flights because of this delay? Did these flights also wait for them? Or those who missed their last train home from the airport and had to take a 200 Pound taxi ride instead (happened to me once, only it were Euros instead of Pounds). Why are Swiss trains among the most punctual in the world? Because they never wait for anything and stick to their timetable no matter what!