Pax offloaded from Dash 8 due to weight and balance

[Mattg]

The virgin/link Saab’s on the Syd-cbr are real shockers when there’s weather en route. Normally QF are pretty good with rescheduling people out of cbr on thursdays. There’s like flights every 20 mins between 520 and 7pm

I was sitting on the Dash 8 feeling lucky I wasn't in a Saab!

I've had bad turbulence before, but what was different about this was it was just relentless. It didn't really stop until we were on the ground.

 

[AuSammy]

That was a joke.

But to be far, there is / was a “Storm” wind warning issued by BOM!

Near Central Sydney a couple hours ago (not my pics)

 

[bussyboy]

Why wouldn't they offload bags and the relevant passengers/ owners randomly?

 

[markis10]

Bit puzzled by all this talk of extra infrastructure when all we needed is a plane that does the job, tonight QF didn’t have one available, others did!

 

[RSD]

Turns out the reason we needed to offload weight was so that we could take on extra fuel, which we needed as we indeed got put into a holding pattern. That was probably one of the worst flights I have ever taken as far as turbulence goes, it was like sitting in a washing machine. The lady in front of me needed the sick bag, and I was physically sweating and shaking when we landed. At least I'm in Sydney - now to wait for my bag to arrive on a later flight.

I was a bit more lucky in some ways on a QF Dash-8 on Sunday night doing MEL-DPO - was only half full so no need offload anyone or anything to take on extra fuel, pretty smooth flight over, unable to land on the first attempt due to lightning, circled for ages, then on the second attempt a sudden 50 knot tailwind during the descent meant that they couldn't get down to the runway and so the crew made the call to head back to Melbourne and we spent the night at the Mantra and I was put on a flight at midday. Tis what it is - a few complained but they eventually calmed down, and I was able to help out a few infrequent flyers who didn't have access to the QF app or email on their phone and so couldn't access the details for their new flight - a quick call to the premium line and I got the details for each one in turn.

 

[RSD]

... and I was able to help out a few infrequent flyers who didn't have access to the QF app or email on their phone and so couldn't access the details for their new flight - a quick call to the premium line and I got the details for each one in turn.

BTW this is something that I would hope and encourage everyone here to do in the event that you are at the airport and have a flight cancelled - often its not that stressful for us frequent flyers, but for infrequent or less experienced flyers or the elderly who aren't good with apps and email on their phones etc it can be a very stressful event - especially late at night like this one was.

 

[Flyfrequently]

They started first by removing bags, and then that wasn’t enough so they offloaded around 11 people. Now they’re moving passengers within the aircraft to different seats.

@Mattg
How did they determine the 11 pax to offload, by asking for volunteers?
If so, would they have received any form of compensation?

I was on BNE-VLI in April when turbulence was anticipated, more fuel required and 2 pax were offloaded.
Two pax on staff travel were escorted off the plane, as they were leaving the Captain thanked them.

 

[Mattg]

@Mattg
How did they determine the 11 pax to offload, by asking for volunteers?
If so, would they have received any form of compensation?

I was on BNE-VLI in April when turbulence was anticipated, more fuel required and 2 pax were offloaded.
Two pax on staff travel were escorted off the plane, as they were leaving the Captain thanked them.

The ground staff (well, probably some algorithm actually) already decided who they were going to offload before any of the pax were informed. I assume none of the people who got kicked off had status.

Said ground staff then came onto the plane and individually informed each of the offloaded passengers that they had to leave and would be rebooked on the next available flight (which was in under an hour). No compensation that I’m aware of, and they didn’t ask for volunteers.

I actually offered to disembark instead of the lady next to me, who was one of the offloads and was in more of a hurry than I was, but the ground staff had already processed everything in the back end and weren’t willing to do that.

Later during the delay, the ground staff came onto again to physically hand new boarding passes with new seat numbers (mostly further down the back of the plane) to around 10 passengers.

 

[Happy Dude]

Mustn't have been any "influencers" onboard. Sounds like they did well to off-load pax without being accused of fat-profiling or fat-shaming.

 

[kookaburra75]

The ground staff (well, probably some algorithm actually) already decided who they were going to offload before any of the pax were informed. I assume none of the people who got kicked off had status.

Said ground staff then came onto the plane and individually informed each of the offloaded passengers that they had to leave and would be rebooked on the next available flight (which was in under an hour). No compensation that I’m aware of, and they didn’t ask for volunteers.

I actually offered to disembark instead of the lady next to me, who was one of the offloads and was in more of a hurry than I was, but the ground staff had already processed everything in the back end and weren’t willing to do that.

Later during the delay, the ground staff came onto again to physically hand new boarding passes with new seat numbers (mostly further down the back of the plane) to around 10 passengers.

Kudos to the Qantas ground crew and others for handling it so quickly, and in a professional manner - which I have always found to be the case. As Dash 8's are pretty much our only mode of air transport to Sydney, there's been a few times with cancellations or medical emergencies on inbound flights, but they've always been handled well. Possibly due to having to manage excessive numbers of prima-donnas that descend on Canberra every few months

And as @Mattg observed, it's light-years better than being on a Saab 340 with Virgin/Link.

 

[justinbrett]

I would assume international connections would be the highest priority, followed by domestic connections. Status thrown in at all stages.

 

[Quickstatus]

The turboprops generally cannot fly on top of the weather.
Just hire a car if offloaded

Spoiler: rail offtopic

Rail not going to work if all that route can offer is a 74 seater turboprop.
It would be a different scenario if that route required a high density 747/777 etc (aka Japan)

Why wouldn't they offload bags and the relevant passengers/ owners randomly?

Some passengers are more valuable to the airline and/or have connections to make.

 

[SYD]

I would assume international connections would be the highest priority, followed by domestic connections. Status thrown in at all stages.

Pity they didn’t have a little extra time to seek volunteers before they boarded.

That could have been awkward and untidy escorting peeps off but sounds like it went ok.

 

[Flyfrequently]

I was on BNE-VLI in April when turbulence was anticipated, more fuel required and 2 pax were offloaded.
Two pax on staff travel were escorted off the plane, as they were leaving the Captain thanked them.

Thanks @Mattg for the explanation re off loading pax.

The 2 on staff travel offloaded from our BNE-VLI flight weren't as fortunate to get a later flight that day - next flight was 48 hours later....

 

[RSD]

Mustn't have been any "influencers" onboard. Sounds like they did well to off-load pax without being accused of fat-profiling or fat-shaming.

Thank gawd The Veronicas weren't booked on the flight or else we would be hearing all about it!

 

[AuSammy]

we would be hearing all about it!

....yep from them......over and over and over and.......

 

[Mattg]

Pity they didn’t have a little extra time to seek volunteers before they boarded.

That could have been awkward and untidy escorting peeps off but sounds like it went ok.

In my experience, offloading passengers after they’ve already boarded is one of the least desirable outcomes in this kind of situation. Unfortunately, in this case, the pilots didn’t know they needed to start offloading until the pax had already boarded.

The captain made a few announcements where he referred to the quickly deteriorating weather in Sydney and needing to “sharpen the pencil”. I think one of the problems as well was that some of the usual alternate airports became unusable, necessitating even more fuel.

The people who got kicked off were a bit annoyed but were good about it. I ended up seeing most of them at the baggage carousel in SYD anyway, as our bags were put on the same later flight as the offloaded passengers!