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No Qantas staff so passengers left on plane <H2>26th May 2008, 6:45 WST
Qantas has apologised to more than 200 passengers who were forced to wait on a plane on the tarmac of Perth Airport for nearly three hours early on Saturday morning because no staff were on duty at the terminal.
The delay was made worse because the passengers had already had to wait eight hours to board the plane because of a mechanical fault.
One passenger, who asked to remain anonymous, said by the time people disembarked just after 4am, most had been awake nearly 24 hours.
“There were no apologies,” the man said.
“There were no additional staff to handle the problem.”
A Qantas spokeswoman said the flight had been scheduled to leave at 4.15pm on Friday, but was delayed for mechanical reasons.
It eventually departed at 1.20am on Saturday, but returned to the terminal before take-off because of further mechanical issues.
“At that stage and late hour, all customer service and engineering staff had departed for the evening,” the spokeswoman said.
“It was decided that all customers and crew remain on board until 4am Saturday morning when Qantas staff resumed duties.”
A replacement aircraft was used to take passengers to Sydney later in the morning.
KERYN McKINNON
A case of - "Last one to leave turn off the lights". </H2>
No Qantas staff so passengers left on plane <H2>26th May 2008, 6:45 WST
Qantas has apologised to more than 200 passengers who were forced to wait on a plane on the tarmac of Perth Airport for nearly three hours early on Saturday morning because no staff were on duty at the terminal.
The delay was made worse because the passengers had already had to wait eight hours to board the plane because of a mechanical fault.
One passenger, who asked to remain anonymous, said by the time people disembarked just after 4am, most had been awake nearly 24 hours.
“There were no apologies,” the man said.
“There were no additional staff to handle the problem.”
A Qantas spokeswoman said the flight had been scheduled to leave at 4.15pm on Friday, but was delayed for mechanical reasons.
It eventually departed at 1.20am on Saturday, but returned to the terminal before take-off because of further mechanical issues.
“At that stage and late hour, all customer service and engineering staff had departed for the evening,” the spokeswoman said.
“It was decided that all customers and crew remain on board until 4am Saturday morning when Qantas staff resumed duties.”
A replacement aircraft was used to take passengers to Sydney later in the morning.
KERYN McKINNON
A case of - "Last one to leave turn off the lights". </H2>
