Cathay Horrific: 16 hours of hell

[markis10]

A CATHAY Pacific flight from New York to Hong Kong was stranded for more than 16 hours in a Chinese city with all 256 passengers kept on board for the entire time late last month because of immigration regulations, bad weather and limits on the crew's work hours.

Flight 831 was diverted to the southern city of Zhuhai on the night of March 30 because of a hailstorm.
The plane was left sitting on the tarmac for hours until Cathay Pacific sent in a new flight crew, with the first crew having reached work-hour limits.

A Cathay Pacific flight was stranded on the tarmac for 16 hours in China | News.com.au

 

[FlyboyAl]

Not a good look for Cathay, even if it wasn't their fault

 

[straitman]

Not a good look for Cathay, even if it wasn't their fault

How do they make it look any better though :?:

 

[TomVexille]

How do they make it look any better though :?:

I don't think there's too much the airline can do. Similar situation to the SQ A380 that landed in Azerbaijan where the passengers were stranded in the terminal for 18 hours.

 

[robd]

I don't think there's too much the airline can do. Similar situation to the SQ A380 that landed in Azerbaijan where the passengers were stranded in the terminal for 18 hours.

Azkaban is a totally different scenario, given that it's a prison

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Azkaban

Lucky to get out in 18 hours I'd say!

 

[TonyHancock]

Given the proximity of ZUH to HKG one does wonder if more could have been done.....although the limiting factor would be customs and immigration/government.

 

[harvyk]

Given the proximity of ZUH to HKG one does wonder if more could have been done.....although the limiting factor would be customs and immigration/government.

Combinations of bad weather and crew hours meant they where stuck

 

[TonyHancock]

Combinations of bad weather and crew hours meant they where stuck

Whilst bad weather and crew hours caused the issue I suspect customs/immigration was the limiting factor. ZUH is about the same distance from HKG as MEL is from AVV. (40 miles) [Of course you have the added bonus of needing to take a ferry until the bridge is completed, and of course go through immigrations and customs at both ends.]

 

[harvyk]

Whilst bad weather and crew hours caused the issue I suspect customs/immigration was the limiting factor. ZUH is about the same distance from HKG as MEL is from AVV. (40 miles) [Of course you have the added bonus of needing to take a ferry until the bridge is completed, and of course go through immigrations and customs at both ends.]

Given it's China, immi problems is virtually a given...

 

[TomVexille]

Given it's China, immi problems is virtually a given...

Agreed. While it sounds simple to have been able to put everyone on a ferry across to HKG, it would have been a nightmare logistically.

 

[dajop]

Given it's China, immi problems is virtually a given...

The closest example I can think of, what if a Canada bound flight had to divert to the US (eg YVR->BLI, YYZ-BUF or DTW), what would happen then? No ability to transit without passing through immigration.

 

[harvyk]

The closest example I can think of, what if a Canada bound flight had to divert to the US (eg YVR->BLI, YYZ-BUF or DTW), what would happen then? No ability to transit without passing through immigration.

AFAIK the US is very picky about pax on planes whom even simply fly over US territories. As such if a flight which did fly over the US with no intention of landing did need an emergency divert, chances are the US already knew who everyone on board was, and as the US has shown in the past, it has no problems closing airspace the rest of the world be dammed.

Back sort of OT I wonder what would have happened had this been an emergency divert and an evac was required on landing?

 

[cove]

This thread has made me feel lucky. Getting stranded in Perth for about 7 hours helped me catch up on more of the movies but there was no popcorn and no choc bomb ice cream. Qantas did give me a voucher so their recovery from an electrical storm hold up was really good.

 

[JohnK]

That is terrible. You cannot treat human beings this way.

Obviously the pilots dont take these things into consideration when they need to divert.

I once spent 3 hrs on the tarmac at LHR on a full TWA flight ATH-JFK that had to divert and that was torture. This would be much worse.

 

[ftm]

Obviously the pilots dont take these things into consideration when they need to divert.

I am sure they do. Just one consideration among others that can easily be more important.

 

[harvyk]

Obviously the pilots dont take these things into consideration when they need to divert.

Depends on the reason for the diversion and what options are available to them...

 

[straitman]

That is terrible. You cannot treat human beings this way.

Obviously the pilots dont take these things into consideration when they need to divert.

They do but the safety of the people and the a/c as a whole are by far the highest priority.

Had they not diverted and there had been an incident there would have been a much bigger out cry :!:

 

[harvyk]

They do but the safety of the people and the a/c as a whole are by far the highest priority.

Had they not diverted and there had been an incident there would have been a much bigger out cry :!:

I think it's safe to say that the pilots themselves don't exactly want to go through immi hassles themselves... So if there was two equal choices for landing, one with immi hassles and one without, you can be pretty sure the pilots would chose the one without. Of course that luxury is not always available...

 

[Robert K]

34 Hour Cathay Pacific Flight... Ultimate Travel Nightmare?! - One Mile at a Time

I read this a week ago. bit more detail than no news

 

[JohnK]

Depends on the reason for the diversion and what options are available to them...

I am not the expert and I look at things slightly differently. There had to have been other choices to land in a civilised airport in case the delay was more than an hour or so. CAN? The pilots must have known the crew would have been out of hours?

And why would it take 16 hours to get new crew across on a short ferry trip? This airport is ~40 miles from HKG so getting it back to HKG could not have been a high priority otherwise it wouldn't have taken that long.