Longest time spent on the tarmac

[teamhamsandwich]

After being stuck sitting on AS19 at MCO for 6 hours yesterday I got to thinking, what is the longest anyone has sat on a plane without going anywhere?

 

[Princess Fiona]

After being stuck sitting on AS19 at MCO for 6 hours yesterday I got to thinking, what is the longest anyone has sat on a plane without going anywhere?

That is a long time. No where near as long as that for me. Two hours at MIA as we just missed our slot before the airspace was closed for the arrival of POTUS.
Fortunately I was in F and the onboard beverage service was superb

 

[farstar]

In the US DOT rules against this with heavy fines.

https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/new-dot-consumer-rule-limits-airline-tarmac-delays-provides-other-passenger

 

[clazman]

3-4 hours at Perth when ground staff went on strike, supposed to be a safety meeting that turned into all day. QF couldn't get us back to terminal as it was full with the follow up flights.

 

[snabbu]

Spent 4 hours on the tarmac at HNL last year as the pushback tugs attachment broke as it tried to get us away from the gate. As with PF above I was in F and quite happy with the service, fortunately also made my LAX connection.

 

[JohnK]

Spent ~3 hours at LHR on a TWA flight ATH-JFK that was diverted. Not as long as others but not fun just the same.

 

[teamhamsandwich]

In the US DOT rules against this with heavy fines.

https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/new-dot-consumer-rule-limits-airline-tarmac-delays-provides-other-passenger

I was actually surprised with how much ease the FA's allowed people to deplane. Loads of people went back into the terminal to get food and go to the bathroom. The only issue was there was 20 other flights doing the same thing, and it was late so the food outlets were closing. I chose to avoid the chaos.

A few people were going to miss connections in Seattle so chose to forfeit this flight and try again the next day.

 

[Pushka]

2.5 hours Barcelona airport during summer on BA. Huge storms over London so we couldn't commence the journey. In Y. Pre AFF days.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

After being stuck sitting on AS19 at MCO for 6 hours yesterday I got to thinking, what is the longest anyone has sat on a plane without going anywhere?

I was actually surprised with how much ease the FA's allowed people to deplane. Loads of people went back into the terminal to get food and go to the bathroom. The only issue was there was 20 other flights doing the same thing, and it was late so the food outlets were closing. I chose to avoid the chaos.

A few people were going to miss connections in Seattle so chose to forfeit this flight and try again the next day.

Bit of a difference! You were free to go back into the terminal, stretch your legs, get something to eat. I wish all delays were like that! Plenty of times have been stuck for several hours on the HKG-PVG corridor. No where to go.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I was also grounded at MIA a year ago while they tried (and failed) to fix some engineering issue. Many pax went to and from the aircraft in that time. I think it's due to the DOT regulations posted above.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Four hours on BA for VCE-LHR when baggage handler ran the baggage loader ramp into side of plane. They had to take pictures and send to BA engineering to obtain permission to fly. (Local safety authorities in VCE would not touch the issue.) Amusingly the local airport safety controller (or whatever it is called) was the fellow driving the baggage loader ramp. We were in 1A/B with no connecting flight so no problem for us. Rest of cabin without aircon became very uncomfortable and many missed international connections out of LHR. (Ba were very proactive in helping those people.)

3.5 hours on EK DXB-VIE when purser found a passenger in Y with severe chest pains and captain cancelled takeoff and returned to the gate. (We were in 1E/F in F so just more wine and snacks for us.

About four hours (I think) in MEL on QF12 LAX-SYD after being diverted because of fog in SYD. We were supposed to refuel and fly back to SYD but cabin crew finally ran out of hours. (We had already been given new set of pilots.) Was in F so we were provided with more meals and excellent Yabby Lake pinots. Finally we were deplaned and had to catch domestic back to BNE. Total chaos with baggage handling from QF 12.

1.5 hours on EK MAD-DXB when winds became too strong for A380 to takeoff.

Luckily have never had a flight cancelled after we boarded. This happened to Ethiad 16 MAD-AUH when we were checking into EK flight last year. They had boarded then found cracked coughpit window and had to cancel flight. There was a large queue of Australians and New Zealanders who had been on a tour/cruise trying to transfer to our EK flight.

 

[jb747]

There's a lot of difference between being out on the tarmac or still being at the gate. If at the gate, the easiest thing to do is simply offload everyone. Out on the tarmac is a very different animal. Firstly, once anyone demands to get off, that's almost certainly the end of the flight for everyone...as the delay will simply start again, with you at the end of the queue. Secondly, any time that there are extensive delays getting airborne, there are almost invariably delays of the same duration in actually getting a gate...so it may well take just as long to go back.

My personal longest...in the order of 4-5 hours. Mine was the very first aircraft to be allowed to land in London on the day of the liquid bombs. Sadly there was nowhere to actually park...we even needed to shut down most of the engines to ensure we didn't use all of the fuel...otherwise it would have been cold and dark.

 

[jb747]

About four hours (I think) in MEL on QF12 LAX-SYD after being diverted because of fog in SYD. We were supposed to refuel and fly back to SYD but cabin crew finally ran out of hours. (We had already been given new set of pilots.) Was in F so we were provided with more meals and excellent Yabby Lake pinots. Finally we were deplaned and had to catch domestic back to BNE. Total chaos with baggage handling from QF 12.

When was that? May 2013?

 

[TheRealTMA]

When was that? May 2013?

Hi JB, yes around end of MAY 2013. If you were the captain then we had a pleasant chat in the doorway.

 

[jb747]

Hi JB, yes around end of MAY 2013. If you were the captain then we had a pleasant chat in the doorway.

I was the replacement. Seem to recall the phone ringing at some ungodly hour...on a day off.

 

[juddles]

can't recall the exact hours, but a bloody long time! at FRA - it was an aborted takeoff in a LH 747 - amazing event as the pilot decided to abort just before rotation. I never even imagined how hard a plane can brake until that day. There were iphones and stuff bouncing all the way to the front of the plane (where I was )

It appeared the tyres caught fire as we were surrounded by zillions of firetrucks and stuff. It must have closed the runway as we stayed right where we came to a stop. Several hours later we eventually got towed back to a gate. During that time they opened one of the doors near me, and without the airbridge you suddenly get a real idea just how high up you are in a jumbo.

Anyway, the wait was long, but the most memorable thing was the braking - you will NEVER catch me without a seatbelt on!!

 

[TheRealTMA]

I was the replacement. Seem to recall the phone ringing at some ungodly hour...on a day off.

Ah ok! Small world.

As it turned out, in fact, notwithstanding the baggage chaos, QF ground staff managed us well and we got a flight MEL-BNE within an hour and arrived in BNE not much after our original scheduled arrival. SYD flights were in chaos until the afternoon so it all worked out well in the end.

One poor couple from F had a number of issues with locating baggage. She was due for a urgent oncology appointment in SYD at 11 am and he had just spend 2 days in LAX hospital after heart bypass and $100K insurance claim. We had no problems in comparison. Overall the experience just gave us more travel stories.

 

[jb747]

can't recall the exact hours, but a bloody long time! at FRA - it was an aborted takeoff in a LH 747 - amazing event as the pilot decided to abort just before rotation. I never even imagined how hard a plane can brake until that day. There were iphones and stuff bouncing all the way to the front of the plane (where I was )

It appeared the tyres caught fire as we were surrounded by zillions of firetrucks and stuff. It must have closed the runway as we stayed right where we came to a stop. Several hours later we eventually got towed back to a gate. During that time they opened one of the doors near me, and without the airbridge you suddenly get a real idea just how high up you are in a jumbo.

Anyway, the wait was long, but the most memorable thing was the braking - you will NEVER catch me without a seatbelt on!!

You may have been going fast, but, unless it was a very short flight, V1 would have been well below Vr....so not at rotate.

The brakes are incredibly powerful, and we rarely use them to their full extent.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

Plenty of times have been stuck for several hours on the HKG-PVG corridor. No where to go.

Yeah, what's with that!

 

[RooFlyer]

There's a lot of difference between being out on the tarmac or still being at the gate. <snip>.

Not quite on topic but a story re being offloaded at gate for maintenance issue. Was at YYC on a US bound flight, so we had pre-cleared US immigration and customs and were ensconced on a small jet of some sort, when successive engineering delays were announced, with de-boarding on the second one.

Sitting on one of the lounge seats, I got chatting to a security type who sat next to me. I mentioned that I hoped it wouldn't be more than an hour. He replied that he hoped so too; he explained that there is some time limit imposed on US pre-cleared pax from when they clear to when the aircraft must depart. I forget how long - 3 hours? (Most people pre clear 2 hrs before push back.) So if we expired our time, we would have to go back into Canada (via Canadian customs and immigration) and when the flight was ready to board again, pre-clear US customs & immigration again.

Trouble was, ours was the last international flight of the day in or out of YYC and the C&I people from both sides had left. :shock:

We made it.

I think before US (and probably Canadian) regulations were amended a few years ago, there were some legendary times recorded cooped up on the plane, usually when snow/ice threw all the schedules into hell and the airlines didn't want to spend the $$ to go back to a gate (if there was one available). Some 8 hour jobs