Jetstar passengers were trapped for hours on tarmac in Phuket with no air conditioning

[rooster59]

Jetstar passengers were trapped for hours on tarmac in Phuket with no air conditioning

Julia Corderoy

 

 

PASSENGERS were fainting and babies were stripped down to just their nappies on a “nightmare” Melbourne-bound Jetstar flight stranded on the tarmac with no air conditioning in tropical conditions.

 

Jetstar flight JQ18 was scheduled to leave Thailand’s Phuket airport at 10:20pm local time but was delayed for more than two hours due to two separate technical faults and a passenger needing to get off due to a medical condition.

 

One of the technical faults affected the ground power unit, which controls the air conditioning unit, so those aboard were forced to endure Thailand’s tropical heat and humidity.

 

A statement from Jetstar provided to news.com.au said the cabin crew “tried to make customers as comfortable as possible” by providing regular cold water while engineers worked on the aircraft.

 

Full story: http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/jetstar-passengers-were-trapped-for-hours-on-tarmac-in-phuket-with-no-air-conditioning/news-story/2c624ab929d03ca5d45dc7b8e53bd417

 

NEWS.com.au: 2017-05-14

 

 

[niffy61]

best get the techincal facts correct. The GPU does not control the aircon packs it only provides air supply. The airport should had portable ground airsupply as GPU failure is common on aircraft.

This is absolute rubbish from the airline they would have known the lenght of time to fix from the engineers and as a certified aircraft engineer australia and USA I find this type of lies from airlines unacceptable. 

 

i had a simliar experience but because I knew the fault and time to fix i demanded to be let of the plane. then all were let off. a 30 mintue fix took 3.5 hours.

[IamNoone88]

Typical. If the airline can't handle a simple on ground situation efficiently and in the best interests of the passengers and with common sense, how can they handle an in air emergency?

[geriatrickid]

2 hours on a tarmac is not unreasonable.   HKT is a busy airport. Once an international flight  has cleared the terminal it is a lengthy process to get it back and unloaded. It requires a gate and personnel. It also requires space in the terminal.  Jet Star is an ultra low cost carrier and   the customers buying its cheap fares must accept that  they will receive sevice that reflects the cheap air fares.

[sanukjim]

21 minutes ago, geriatrickid said:

2 hours on a tarmac is not unreasonable.   HKT is a busy airport. Once an international flight  has cleared the terminal it is a lengthy process to get it back and unloaded. It requires a gate and personnel. It also requires space in the terminal.  Jet Star is an ultra low cost carrier and   the customers buying its cheap fares must accept that  they will receive sevice that reflects the cheap air fares.

You get what you pay for.With cheap fairs comes a big risking,things like proper ground equipment,qualified maintenance personnel.pilot experience, age of aircraft,etc.

[gamini]

I was stranded on The tarmac at Hong Kong for a few hours. So the stewards and stewardesses turned it into a party and produced marvellous food and wine, free of charge and people were dancing in the aisle.  It was a British Airways flight and I'm quite sure no budget airline would have done this

[scotchonrocks]

It's not only low cost carriers that give you this kind of BS. I had it in Edinburgh with BA. What a pantomime that was!

[car720]

1 hour ago, geriatrickid said:

2 hours on a tarmac is not unreasonable.   HKT is a busy airport. Once an international flight  has cleared the terminal it is a lengthy process to get it back and unloaded. It requires a gate and personnel. It also requires space in the terminal.  Jet Star is an ultra low cost carrier and   the customers buying its cheap fares must accept that  they will receive sevice that reflects the cheap air fares.

Don't you think that is a bit of a paradox/contradiction though?

All parties promote the low airfares in order to increase tourism.  Buying a ticket in a cattle car should not automatically entitle you to be treated like a cow.  Also, from memory, these carriers also have business class on the same equipment so should they also be expected to be treated like cattle.  It is many years since I was in the travel business but it was always a case of only a certain number of seats being sold at the lowest price and then upwards from there so not all are on the cheapest fare.

[car720]

48 minutes ago, sanukjim said:

You get what you pay for.With cheap fairs comes a big risking,things like proper ground equipment,qualified maintenance personnel.pilot experience, age of aircraft,etc.

I am sure that there are a few experts here who would say that the airfare doesn't usually reflect the equipment being used.

[tonywillo]

53 minutes ago, sanukjim said:

You get what you pay for.With cheap fairs comes a big risking,things like proper ground equipment,qualified maintenance personnel.pilot experience, age of aircraft,etc.

Yes you get what you pay for? It's got a seven (7) star safety rating and prices are often 200 - 300 dollars cheaper than the 4 star safety rated Thai airways. For that money I'd be happy sit for 2 hrs while the T's are crossed and the I's dotted on any safety procedure. There was probably no gate available to disembark and re-enter later known congested phuket airport. 

[Pungdo]

And Jetstar wonder why they were just voted the worlds worst airline

[Familyonthemove]

Flew Jetstar once.....  never again.  The seat backs are so upright, they actually lean forwards, and checking-in took over an hour as 'the system was down'.

[Notmyploblem]

And Jetstar wonder why they were just voted the worlds worst airline

Jetstar is owned by Qantas. Neither have had ever lost a jet. There is a reason for that, they don't cut corners.
Better to boil on the tarmac than screaming your lungs out spinning to the ground from 30,000 feet?

[darksidedog]

I've had the same thing happen to me but in reverse. I was flying from India to Singapore and we had to make an emergency landing in Kolkata in the middle of the night in winter. Wearing shorts and a T-shirt after five hours I was nearly blue with cold as there was no heating and the airport was closed for the night. We kept being told it would only be a little bit longer. It was made worse by Indian Airlines not notifying Singapore, so I missed my connection and that nights flight too, causing me a 24 hour delay.

[hansnl]

2 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

2 hours on a tarmac is not unreasonable.   HKT is a busy airport. Once an international flight  has cleared the terminal it is a lengthy process to get it back and unloaded. It requires a gate and personnel. It also requires space in the terminal.  Jet Star is an ultra low cost carrier and   the customers buying its cheap fares must accept that  they will receive sevice that reflects the cheap air fares.

What you write about low price service is plain rubbish.

Leaving people in a stranded aircraft for two hours in tropical heat has nothing to do with "service" but might be construed as criminal negligence.

Just imagine some passengers would have succumbed to the heat, I guess the company would have been open for negligence, at least.

I really cannot understand there are people on this world defending the companies disregarding many safety precautions just for profit, or even worse, the well-being of passengers in unexpected situations.

Like this one.

 

[rosst]

4 hours ago, niffy61 said:

best get the techincal facts correct. The GPU does not control the aircon packs it only provides air supply. The airport should had portable ground airsupply as GPU failure is common on aircraft.

This is absolute rubbish from the airline they would have known the lenght of time to fix from the engineers and as a certified aircraft engineer australia and USA I find this type of lies from airlines unacceptable. 

 

i had a simliar experience but because I knew the fault and time to fix i demanded to be let of the plane. then all were let off. a 30 mintue fix took 3.5 hours.

Yes, I was also subjected to this in Beijing and was told that the aircon had a fault. 

I knew that was bullshit and made a fuss until they reconnected the ground unit and just as well because we missed our slot due to freight documents being incorrect and it was a total of three hours in the plane prior to take off. 

Philippine Airlines opened the bar and served food to all. 

This is acceptable. 

[scorecard]

2 hours ago, tonywillo said:

Yes you get what you pay for? It's got a seven (7) star safety rating and prices are often 200 - 300 dollars cheaper than the 4 star safety rated Thai airways. For that money I'd be happy sit for 2 hrs while the T's are crossed and the I's dotted on any safety procedure. There was probably no gate available to disembark and re-enter later known congested phuket airport. 

 

But would it not be possible to easily and fairly quickly get portable stairs to the aircraft to offload the passengers onto buses and to some part of the terminal?

[LivinginKata]

2 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

But would it not be possible to easily and fairly quickly get portable stairs to the aircraft to offload the passengers onto buses and to some part of the terminal?

 

Would cost the airline more money.  That's all airlines care about - profit. PAX are just cattle.

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, Pungdo said:

And Jetstar wonder why they were just voted the worlds worst airline

 

Try and get some specific answers about free luggage allowances or cost per 5, 10, ... kilo etc. No details on their website, send an e.mail, never answered. Phone their Bkk office, staff don't know the answer and say ring S'pore office, they insist you look at the website.

 

I did take their flight once from Bkk to HCMC Vietnam. Urgent day trip for a meeting, no check-in bags. Bkk check-in was total chaos, 2 very young check-in staff clearly untrained and trying to check-in a full aircraft, limited English, no idea how to answer simple questions.

 

Same two youngsters then appeared at the gate, obviously not fully familiar with the procedures. Departure 1 hour late.

 

However the on-board cabin staff were excellent, polite, friendly, good listeners and efficient, nothing too much trouble, all Vietnamese, all spoke perfect English, 6 stars.

 

 

 

 

[dundas]

The basic Jetstar attitude is if you're a customer you don't count, and nothing they do to the detriment of their customers surprises me. I've had flights cancelled minutes before boarding, and on another occasion, staff attempted to persuade me to give up my so-called business class seat while waiting to board the aircraft, with my ticket paid for months in advance and with a boarding pass issued. Their fares aren't cheap, and I can often get a better deal on Thai, in economy at least (and Thai economy is close to being as good as Jetstar business).  So problem solved -- I just don't fly with them any more, especially since they went to a 30" seat pitch and 9 across in economy on their 787.  

As for safety, they had a plane nearly hit the ground (without the flight crew meaning to) when attempting a landing in Melbourne Tullamarine some years ago and that was documented by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, and another one had to go round in Singapore because the captain was too busy texting on his mobile phone as the plane came in to land. On a flight I was on, post the German Wings disaster, one of the flight crew came back to talk to the flight attendants in the forward cabin, who wrapped a curtain around the whole huddle so that we passengers didn't get to witness what they should not have been doing -- having a casual conversation about nothing. To this day, I don't know if the cockpit door was open the whole time or not -- that was all kept from view.  There have also been several instances of planes taking off out of balance (in one case the pilots had to organise the re-seating of passengers during flight, so that the plane could keep flying with a degree of safety). Your co-pilot on a Jetstar flight is likely to be relatively inexperienced -- the co-pilot flying the  plane that nearly hit the ground in Melbourne had a total of 360 hours on type. Jetstar are not exactly what I would call safety conscious. Seven star safety rating? Hahaha. Read the documented cases, and you'll reach the same conclusion that I did -- they've been very lucky and so have their passengers. 

[anon4637435435]

When youve travelled enough all flights suck. I have to say i have found jet star to be far superior. Never had a problem and really courteous. That said i came across a deal that was unbeatable so booked an airasia flight 10months in advance. Now that i do expect to be screwed over with. Happened before and sure will happen again. Promised myself i would never fly with them again. But hey its cheap... Will shut my eyes, cross my fingers and hold my breathe for 13hours.... 

[hhinhh]

1 hour ago, LivinginKata said:

 

Would cost the airline more money.  That's all airlines care about - profit. PAX are just cattle.

You are right, if cattle would be held like passengers on a long haul flight in some aircrafts it would be an uproar. But these "cattle" people want it like this because they only look at the price. E.g. from Sydney to Denpassar you have three cattle-flights and one from Garuda, a 5 star airline which charges about 20% more but with excelent service and more space. 75% look only at the price and squeeze themselves into narrow seats of low cost airlines for more than 6 hours to save money for totally overprices designer clothes. You should can decide for what you spend your money.

[sanukjim]

5 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

2 hours on a tarmac is not unreasonable.   HKT is a busy airport. Once an international flight  has cleared the terminal it is a lengthy process to get it back and unloaded. It requires a gate and personnel. It also requires space in the terminal.  Jet Star is an ultra low cost carrier and   the customers buying its cheap fares must accept that  they will receive sevice that reflects the cheap air fares.

Two hours is very unreasonable and definitely not normal with a responsible airline.you must not fly outside of Thailand often.

[sanukjim]

58 minutes ago, bsdthai said:

When youve travelled enough all flights suck. I have to say i have found jet star to be far superior. Never had a problem and really courteous. That said i came across a deal that was unbeatable so booked an airasia flight 10months in advance. Now that i do expect to be screwed over with. Happened before and sure will happen again. Promised myself i would never fly with them again. But hey its cheap... Will shut my eyes, cross my fingers and hold my breathe for 13hours.... 

And try not to think about the shoddy maintenance and inspection procedures that might have happened on the plane that you are riding in.

[impulse]

Hard to tell what really happened.

 

In the past, a lot of these stories start out with the passengers livid at the airline,.  Then when all the facts come out, we find out that the airline staff tried to move heaven and earth and it was the airport staff that wouldn't let them have a gate, or even a portable jetway.

 

I'll wait until the facts roll in.

[Reigntax]

5 hours ago, hansnl said:

What you write about low price service is plain rubbish.

Leaving people in a stranded aircraft for two hours in tropical heat has nothing to do with "service" but might be construed as criminal negligence.

Just imagine some passengers would have succumbed to the heat, I guess the company would have been open for negligence, at least.

I really cannot understand there are people on this world defending the companies disregarding many safety precautions just for profit, or even worse, the well-being of passengers in unexpected situations.

Like this one.

 

Criminal negligence. Really?

 

Do you have a link to reference the law of any country where it is a crime for such an occurance?  

[KKr]

2 hours ago, sanukjim said:

Two hours is very unreasonable and definitely not normal with a responsible airline.you must not fly outside of Thailand often.

I agree, unreasonable and unnecessary.
Guess the A/C was already out of order when the boarding started, completely out of the acceptable range of service an airliner should offer their passengers.
The least one would expect is to keep temperature in an acceptable range, and keep air flowing.
The story does not mention whether doors were open to create at least some air movement.
But the least they could have done is bring in additional air-conditioning equipment, or two or three desert-coolers, to manage the temperature and airflow.
I am not particularly fussy, but this carrier I'll avoid. 

[lemonjelly]

You'd get in trouble if you left a dog in a locked car in the heat for that long.

[Elkski]

Until you have experienced the panic feelings of claustrophobia and trapped inside a hot plain cabin on the sunny tarmac you can't say a meaningful word.  It happened to me once in Dallas.   It's like sun on a aluminum can.  200+ 75 watt heaters on full.   You can't understand.   It should be a criminal offense cheap airline or not.  Competition is good.  

[Moonlover]

On 5/14/2017 at 9:33 AM, rooster59 said:

One of the technical faults affected the ground power unit, which controls the air conditioning unit, so those aboard were forced to endure Thailand’s tropical heat and humidity.

 

 

23 hours ago, niffy61 said:

best get the techincal facts correct. The GPU does not control the aircon packs it only provides air supply. The airport should had portable ground airsupply as GPU failure is common on aircraft.

Yes, best we do get the technical facts right. One of the technical faults affected the Ground Power Unit, so the fault has to be electrical. If the ground staff were unable to hook up the GPU, the the aircraft has no power other than its own batteries, which will not last very long. The aircraft's aircon packs require both electrical power and an air supply to function. Ergo, no power means no aircon.

 

And your next comment makes no sense at all. 'GPU failure is common on aircraft'.- What?  Aircraft don't have GPUs. It's a piece of Ground Service Equipment. (GSE in airside speak)