Aviation News

Security, immigration and customs officers at Shanghai Airport stood by and watched as a mob of angry passengers assaulted an Australian Jetstar pilot and crew they had surrounded and held hostage, after their plane was diverted due to bad weather.

In what one passenger described as unbelievable scenes, no-one came to the aid of the pilot who was bailed up against a wall and being physically restrained by the passengers.

Alastair Johnson, who was on the flight, said he tried to intervene to stop the mob assaulting the pilot. But when he asked the nearby officials to call the police they told him to call the police himself.

Fairfax has been unable to contact the Chinese Embassy in Canberra for comment.

The A330-200 flight which originated in Melbourne and picked up passengers in Singapore was flying Australian, US and Chinese nationals to Beijing on Friday.

Mr Johnson, a product manager for the telco supplier, Alcatel-Lucent, was on his way to a conference in Beijing when fog forced the plane to divert and land at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport.

He said the plane landed early in the morning and the passengers remained on board for a couple of hours while it was decided what action to take.

He said the situation was testy but calm on board with Jetstar crew keeping everyone up to date on developments, but the situation soon escalated once they got off.

Mr Johnson said they headed into the terminal and Jetstar staff divided the passengers into groups, those who had to get to Beijing urgently, those who could wait until the Jetstar pilot and crew, who were over their legal flying hours limit, could continue to fly the plane and those who wanted to return to Singapore.

But that was when things really started to go wrong and the passengers became “extremely obnoxious”. He said the ground crew were extremely passive and patient.

At one stage, Mr Johnson said that 150 passengers were shouting at one crew member who was just taking it.

“Then suddenly a bunch of people ran away so I went to see where they went,” Mr Johnson told Fairfax.

“They had seen the captain and the flight crew who were trying to get their bags and leave.

“They had them bailed up against a wall with a semi-circle of people around them.”

The captain, first officer and cabin crew were in the semi-circle.

“The captain was being assaulted. They were preventing him from leaving, physically restraining him and trying to take his bags away.”

Mr Johnson said the captain was very calm and kept saying to them “these actions are not going to help”.

All the while the uproar was being ignored by airport officials. He said not a single one came to help or called police despite Mr Johnson asking them to.

“For the crew I think it was pretty scary. But the captain remained calm, even though he wasn’t happy about it – about being physically handled.

The vice-president of The Australian and International Pilots Association, Richard Woodward, said he was very concerned about the situation and revealed there have been other incidents in which pilots and crew had been assaulted.

He said the captain should never be exposed to any violence because if they are injured, the person most able to fly the plane may be lost.

Mr Woodward, who is a Qantas A380 captain, said the pilot and crew are taught to remain calm in difficult situations and work things through.

“They are taught how to deal with clashes of verbal judo,’’ said Mr Woodward.

“But we are not kung fu experts. We are reliant on others around to protect them.

“The civil aviation community is reliant on the legal action of other countries. There have been incidents where they have been assaulted but the other country has refused to take action. However, we can only protest. It is up to the company to take things further if they can.”

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/extremely-obnoxious-no-help-for-jetstar-crew-as-passengers-held-them-hostage-20121031-28j45.html

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As airline, airport, rail and port workers dug through storm debris, dealt with power outages and assessed damage on Tuesday, one thing became increasingly clear: Restoring full services could take some time.

Hurricane Sandy’s assault on the Eastern US so brutally flooded tracks and roads, felled trees and downed power lines, it could be days or weeks before passengers and cargo are moving around normally again, officials said.

The three major New York area airports, which serve the nation’s busiest airspace, remained closed on Tuesday, and officials said they had no estimate for when the airports would fully reopen.

Late Tuesday, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it was possible that there would be limited service on Wednesday at Kennedy Airport. There was no indication that LaGuardia and Newark Liberty would offer service on Wednesday. The three airports handle 300,000 passengers a day.

Nearly 16,000 flights have been cancelled since Sunday as a result of the storm, including 7,791 cancelled on Monday, 6,047 on Tuesday and 635 so far for Wednesday, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.

Airlines said they planned to restart service on Tuesday at some East Coast airports, including Boston and Philadelphia. Both Dulles and Reagan National in Washington, were open during the storm and airlines are starting to bring personnel and planes back; limited operations were expected to begin Tuesday afternoon, said Kimberly Gibbs, a spokeswoman with Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

“New York airports are still a question,” JetBlue spokeswoman Allison Steinberg said on Tuesday. “We are waiting for condition reports from the Port Authority, but we are ready to deploy our plan to resume operations to JFK, LaGuardia and Newark tomorrow afternoon.”

And even if the airports reopen, travel itineraries are likely to be tangled throughout the week as airlines sort out getting their people, planes and passengers into position.

“If flights (in the New York area) started to resume as early as tomorrow, it could be four to five days before we start to see schedules get back to normal,” said Jeanenne Tornatore, a senior editor with online travel agency Orbitz. “I think it will be into the late weekend.”

In New York, workers from the Port Authority and the Federal Aviation Administration are assessing damage at major airports, including power issues, possible damage to structures and other safety checks, the FAA and the Port Authority said.

Airlines needed to bring back planes, which were flown out to avoid the storm, to resume service.

“We are focused on reopening as quickly as possible. But we will not compromise safety,” said Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the Port Authority. “We need to walk the runways and make sure there’s no debris.”

He declined to estimate when they would reopen. “Certainly we would like to within the next few days seek to resume normal operations,” he said. “But a lot of things are outside our control.”

Most Amtrak service along the busy Northeast corridor remained suspended on Tuesday for a second day, but officials were working to reopen some service Wednesday.

“We have crews out there right now assessing and making necessary repairs,” said Christina Leeds, an Amtrak spokeswoman.

United Parcel Service said it had resumed deliveries to hospitals and clinics in Manhattan and New Jersey where roads are safe.

But delivery remained halted in Washington, DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia. UPS is “respecting areas where government officials only want emergency responders out in Delaware, New Jersey, Philly and parts of Maryland and Virginia,” a spokeswoman said.

FedEx said it was working to resume service on Wednesday in affected areas, but that hub airport closures and storm debris would affect service. “If you’re at a house blockaded by fallen trees, we won’t be able to get to it,” said Scott Fiedler, a spokesman.

The reopening of New York’s transit system will play a large role in reopening the airports, because many of the workers at security checkpoints, customs and concessions, and baggage handlers and flight crews, rely on public transportation to get to work. “That’s going to be a key part of the equation,” DiFulco said.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it could take four or five days to restore service on the city transit system, the nation’s largest.

“The availability of public transportation will also play into the New York plan, too – so it remains very, very fluid,” said JetBlue spokeswoman Steinberg.

About 220 people remain stranded at the airports – 100 at JFK and 60 each at Newark Liberty and LaGuardia, DiFulco said. They were provided with cots and at least one food vendor was required to stay open 24 hours at each terminal.

“We hate to see anybody stranded,” DiFulco said. “We’re providing cots and water and working on food vouchers. We’re doing everything we can to keep people comfortable.”

Meanwhile, flights resumed Tuesday at Stewart International Airport, about 60 miles north of Manhattan, near Newburgh, New York. The first commercial flight since the storm was expected to arrive around noon Tuesday.

Airlines could lose USD$175 million in revenue from flights cancelled because of the storm, said Michael Boyd, an aviation consultant with Boyd Group. “None of it is life-threatening corporately, but it is significant.”

Boyd said Delta Air Lines, JetBlue and United would be among the carriers taking the hardest financial hit. He added that American Airlines operates 25 percent of the flights at JFK.

“From the airline perspective, closing your major hubs for several days is worth of a lot of revenue,” said Carter Leake, an analyst at BB&T Capital Markets in Richmond, Virginia.

Airlines have high fixed costs and the loss of revenue would likely lower profits, he added.

Philadelphia airport did not close but Monday flights were cancelled. “We had no damage to the facility, we had no flooding so we were very fortunate,” airport spokeswoman Victoria Lupica said on Tuesday.

Germany’s Lufthansa has an inbound and outbound flight, and cargo carriers have resumed some operations, she said.

Delta Air Lines said it resumed flights to Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon.

Atlantic City’s airport was closed except for military flights, but Spirit Airlines, the main commercial carrier there, may resume some service later on Tuesday, said Kevin Rehmann, a spokesman for the South Jersey Transportation Authority.

The area was hard hit as the hurricane came ashore Monday night. “The water is receding but it left behind lots of debris and mud and dirt,” he said.

(Reuters)

The Daily Mirror reports that earlier this month, David Laughton, 39, and his partner Sarah Wilson, 28, were taking his stepson Lee Doran, 17, on his first holiday abroad, along with two other children.

According to reports cabin crew were unable to control the situation and the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in Porto to have the rowing people taken off the aircraft.

The Thomson flight from Newcastle to Lanzarote had been in the air for more than three hours when the pair started fighting in the aisle.

Holidaymakers were forced to wait as the whole family were marched off the plane by police officers. They were questioned at Porto airport and eventually released without charge.

Reportedly, the couple, from Hartlepool in Cleveland, spent the night in Porto before booking another flight to Lanzarote with the two younger children. They left Lee behind, who had to be rescued by foreign office officials. He is reported to have made a frantic phone call to his mum in London, and was eventually taken in by embassy staff. His mother paid for his flight home.

The incident is estimated to have cost Thomson £35,000 and the airline may try to recoup some of the bill from Mr Laughton.

Speaking about the mid-air brawl, Mr Laughton told the Mirror: 'We were 50 minutes from landing and Lee pulled his hood up and I pulled it down.

"The next thing I knew, he had his arms around my neck and we ended up in the aisle. When we got to Porto he wouldn't take any money from me. Lee is 17 and lives on his own in London. This has been blown out of all proportion."

He apologised to his fellow airline passengers and added: "I understand this caused a great deal of upset, but we would not continue on the trip as was planned. "I am sorry that the plane was diverted and I can understand why that action was taken."

A spokesman for Thomson also apologised to passengers for any disruption encountered during the flight, saying: "Unfortunately a party of passengers became disruptive on board and as a last resort the flight had to be diverted to Portugal. Upon landing, the aircraft was met by local police and the passengers were removed from the flight for further questioning.

"Thomson operates a zero tolerance policy with regards to any disruptive behaviour on board and incidents of this type are extremely rare."

The couple has been banned from the return flight and will have to make their own arrangements to get home.

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Emirates Airline

Two Airlines employees are accused of embezzling thousands of dirhams from the airline by buying discounted tickets and selling them on at full price, a court was told.

A 28-year-old Kenyan, SA, and AD, 33, are being charged for taking advantage of the airline’s policy of giving staff a 50 per cent discount on tickets for family members, by then selling them to strangers for their actual price, the Dubai Criminal Court heard on Tuesday.

SA was charged with forgery and embezzling Dh5,720 – a discount given on five tickets – while AD was charged with forgery and embezzling Dh7,968 – a discount given on eight tickets, most of them booked to the United States.

Emirates found out about the incident last November after security officers noticed a large number of discounted tickets were being booked within two months by the two defendants, records stated.

AR, 37, an Iranian security officer at the airline, testified that AD informed him SA had asked her to book tickets for unknown people in return for money. She told AR she complied because she needed the money. “He also made a number of bookings for strangers claiming they were for his relatives,” the security officer said in prosecution records.

The two were not present to enter a plea but are scheduled to appear in court on October 7.

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