There's a WHAT on the plane?!?!?
Jul 18, 2008, 7:22 am
#1
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Join Date: Feb 2004
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There's a WHAT on the plane?!?!?
My wife and I had stood in line at the NCE airport waiting to check our bags for our BA flight to LHR. We must have been there 45 minutes, waiting for the two lines to slowly pick up; they didn't. Finally we were at the front. We checked our two bags, headed upstairs towards the gate, went through security, to the lounge and relaxed for 30 minutes before our flight boarded. I spoke to my wife about our 3.5 hr layover at Heathrow, and that we'd have to change terminals for our VS flight departing at 6 PM. Considering this 1:35 PM (BA347) flight was to arrive at 2:35 PM (with the time difference), we had no trouble at all.
Once we were on board, we saw a couple families move from the back of the aircraft towards the middle, where we were sitting and I figured they just wanted to make sure that families would be together for this short 1hr 40 min jaunt to the UK. After another 30 mins of moving people around, I started to suspect something. The captain voice on the PA:
"We've gotten involved in a situation that I never encountered before. I need to call London to access the matter and I will get back to you as soon as I can."
No mention that it wasn't security related, no mention that it was anyting related. What was going on?!?!
After a couple more minutes, a fellow passenger and I overheard the purser talking to a woman about her spotting a scorpion on board. He talked to her about it for a couple of minutes, and on walked the BA "Airport Delivery Manager". The french fellow had no concern for delays as her asked the woman, "Did you see a scorpion?" She replied, "yes." He then asked, "Have you ever seen one before?" She replied, "no." He rebutted, "well, then, she's never seen one. Doesn't know what one looks like. It's not a scorpion. Thank you. You can now leave."
Um, that didn't work. The pilot got back on the PA telling us that after all the years of experience at the BA operations center in London, they had never heard of a scorpion on board one of their aircraft and they'd have to cancel the flight, unload the bags, and get the plane back to LHR for fumigation. They would not take a chance.
This pilot, Captain [REMOVED], in my opinion, is an idiot. From the way he was making announcements, he was speaking like we were dealing with a terrorist situation. The simple fact was, most of the passengers didn't care at all. A couple of us told him we'd happily sign a release that we wouldn't hold BA responsible for a scorpion BITE (HAPPY NOW????) or worse, death, as long as could just get to Heathrow. Captain [REMOVED]'s response, a blank look on his face. Not only didn't he respond to the repeated questions he was asked, he would just give a blank stare. The captain and co-pilot, just simply looked at people as they de-planed. A lack of professionalism that I would expect from a second rate airline in a third world country. The purser and "airport delivery manager" wouldn't do much either.
We all went back through immigration, got our bags, and proceeded to stand in lines for 3 hours, while NOTHING was done. No aircraft replacement, barely any rebooking.
Finally, after I had HAD enough of the BA agents on the phone telling me that it "wasn't their problem". I went berserk and told the "airport delivery manager" what he could do with his stupid responses to me. "We didn't place the scorpion on the plane, so it isn't our responsibility."
My simple explanation to him was, if it wasn't ATC or weather, it's their problem, not mine. His response, "well, we don't work directly for BA, we are outsourced here, so once again, this isn't our problem."
I reminded him that the 757s on this route fly a modified business class that has an extra seat on the right side of the aircraft. They usually don't fill that seat on some flights, and he told me that he wouldn't fill those seats as it wouldn't be fair to the business class passengers who had booked on the next flights coming up that day. I asked him what he's going to do with the 180 stranded people mulling around, he replied, "not our problem."
Out of nowhere, he handed me two boarding passes and told me to run to the gate as, "they will not hold the plane for you." My wife and I bolted, got to the gate and got on board right away (both of us in those middle seats that he had at first said he wouldn't fill).
Phew!
Once on board, I told my wife that we had to be wheels up within 30 mins, or we don't make our connection. The Captain got on the PA and told us that we were being held by ATC in Brussels for 1 hour because of traffic. OY!
I went up to speak with him to ask him if in his experience, these kinds of holds get lifted or amended. He said its 50/50. I told him I was flying VS and he raked me over the coals, in a fun way, asking me why 1. I'd fly his competitor and 2. why I'd even tell him I was. Captain [REMOVED NO2] was a NICE guy. He told me he knew the situation with the "scorpion" flight and he'd do his best to get all of us to our connections. Within 20 minutes, our hold was lifted and we were on our way.
Captain [REMOVED NO2] repeatedly kept us updated as to the status of our arrival and the connections that had to be made. He arranged for a couple BA reps to meet our plane and bring people to their connecting flights.
As the plane landed, we taxiied to the first open gate at the first terminal we could see. Stairs were driven over and we deplaned onto two buses that took us right to immigration at terminal 1. The Captain didn't wait for an open gate, or to go to the terminal we were supposed to be at. He made it work for his customers.
The contrast between Captain [REMOVED] and Captain [REMOVED NO2] was immense. One pilot had me sworn off BA (along with the airport staff) and the other brought me right back into the fold.
I had changed our connecting flight from VS 25 at 6 PM to VS 17 at 8:25 PM (the last one to NYC for the day). We made it with time to spare. We had about 20 mins in the Upper Class Clubhouse, and then made our way to the aircraft where we changed into sleep suits, and had our beds made for a 7 hr flight to EWR. I slept like a baby after a long day of contrasting anger and joy.
I will be sending a letter to BA about this situation and about a couple more people that were involved with all of the confusion, but I just wanted to give Flyertalkers a little taste.
Once we were on board, we saw a couple families move from the back of the aircraft towards the middle, where we were sitting and I figured they just wanted to make sure that families would be together for this short 1hr 40 min jaunt to the UK. After another 30 mins of moving people around, I started to suspect something. The captain voice on the PA:
"We've gotten involved in a situation that I never encountered before. I need to call London to access the matter and I will get back to you as soon as I can."
No mention that it wasn't security related, no mention that it was anyting related. What was going on?!?!
After a couple more minutes, a fellow passenger and I overheard the purser talking to a woman about her spotting a scorpion on board. He talked to her about it for a couple of minutes, and on walked the BA "Airport Delivery Manager". The french fellow had no concern for delays as her asked the woman, "Did you see a scorpion?" She replied, "yes." He then asked, "Have you ever seen one before?" She replied, "no." He rebutted, "well, then, she's never seen one. Doesn't know what one looks like. It's not a scorpion. Thank you. You can now leave."
Um, that didn't work. The pilot got back on the PA telling us that after all the years of experience at the BA operations center in London, they had never heard of a scorpion on board one of their aircraft and they'd have to cancel the flight, unload the bags, and get the plane back to LHR for fumigation. They would not take a chance.
This pilot, Captain [REMOVED], in my opinion, is an idiot. From the way he was making announcements, he was speaking like we were dealing with a terrorist situation. The simple fact was, most of the passengers didn't care at all. A couple of us told him we'd happily sign a release that we wouldn't hold BA responsible for a scorpion BITE (HAPPY NOW????) or worse, death, as long as could just get to Heathrow. Captain [REMOVED]'s response, a blank look on his face. Not only didn't he respond to the repeated questions he was asked, he would just give a blank stare. The captain and co-pilot, just simply looked at people as they de-planed. A lack of professionalism that I would expect from a second rate airline in a third world country. The purser and "airport delivery manager" wouldn't do much either.
We all went back through immigration, got our bags, and proceeded to stand in lines for 3 hours, while NOTHING was done. No aircraft replacement, barely any rebooking.
Finally, after I had HAD enough of the BA agents on the phone telling me that it "wasn't their problem". I went berserk and told the "airport delivery manager" what he could do with his stupid responses to me. "We didn't place the scorpion on the plane, so it isn't our responsibility."
My simple explanation to him was, if it wasn't ATC or weather, it's their problem, not mine. His response, "well, we don't work directly for BA, we are outsourced here, so once again, this isn't our problem."
I reminded him that the 757s on this route fly a modified business class that has an extra seat on the right side of the aircraft. They usually don't fill that seat on some flights, and he told me that he wouldn't fill those seats as it wouldn't be fair to the business class passengers who had booked on the next flights coming up that day. I asked him what he's going to do with the 180 stranded people mulling around, he replied, "not our problem."
Out of nowhere, he handed me two boarding passes and told me to run to the gate as, "they will not hold the plane for you." My wife and I bolted, got to the gate and got on board right away (both of us in those middle seats that he had at first said he wouldn't fill).
Phew!
Once on board, I told my wife that we had to be wheels up within 30 mins, or we don't make our connection. The Captain got on the PA and told us that we were being held by ATC in Brussels for 1 hour because of traffic. OY!
I went up to speak with him to ask him if in his experience, these kinds of holds get lifted or amended. He said its 50/50. I told him I was flying VS and he raked me over the coals, in a fun way, asking me why 1. I'd fly his competitor and 2. why I'd even tell him I was. Captain [REMOVED NO2] was a NICE guy. He told me he knew the situation with the "scorpion" flight and he'd do his best to get all of us to our connections. Within 20 minutes, our hold was lifted and we were on our way.
Captain [REMOVED NO2] repeatedly kept us updated as to the status of our arrival and the connections that had to be made. He arranged for a couple BA reps to meet our plane and bring people to their connecting flights.
As the plane landed, we taxiied to the first open gate at the first terminal we could see. Stairs were driven over and we deplaned onto two buses that took us right to immigration at terminal 1. The Captain didn't wait for an open gate, or to go to the terminal we were supposed to be at. He made it work for his customers.
The contrast between Captain [REMOVED] and Captain [REMOVED NO2] was immense. One pilot had me sworn off BA (along with the airport staff) and the other brought me right back into the fold.
I had changed our connecting flight from VS 25 at 6 PM to VS 17 at 8:25 PM (the last one to NYC for the day). We made it with time to spare. We had about 20 mins in the Upper Class Clubhouse, and then made our way to the aircraft where we changed into sleep suits, and had our beds made for a 7 hr flight to EWR. I slept like a baby after a long day of contrasting anger and joy.
I will be sending a letter to BA about this situation and about a couple more people that were involved with all of the confusion, but I just wanted to give Flyertalkers a little taste.
Last edited by rweintra; Jul 29, 2008 at 7:55 am Reason: Change sting to bite as per Jenbel/Macabus/G-BOAC...etc.
Jul 18, 2008, 7:33 am
#2
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Austin
Posts: 4,629
We see scorpions inside our house almost every week. I guess I should move out.
Jul 18, 2008, 7:38 am
#3
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 11,924
1. A risk of booking separate itineraies (with separate airlines).
2. I doubt the first Captain decided to cancel the flight lightly, I am sure he was guided by what the company said, and what the procedures said, so it seems silly to blame one individual
3. I also doubt the second Captain simply taxied to any old gate he came across, and said "hell yeah, that'n'll do".
4. Don't trust the French.
5. What's modified business class?
2. I doubt the first Captain decided to cancel the flight lightly, I am sure he was guided by what the company said, and what the procedures said, so it seems silly to blame one individual
3. I also doubt the second Captain simply taxied to any old gate he came across, and said "hell yeah, that'n'll do".
4. Don't trust the French.
5. What's modified business class?
Jul 18, 2008, 7:39 am
#4
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The pilot is responsible for the safety of his passengers on-board the aircraft.
That's it. That is his ultimate responsibility. If someone had got stung (not bitten) on the flight after he had taken off, knowing there may be one on board, then he would have been responsible. I'm a biologist - I don't know how bad the stings of scorpions are in that part of the world, so why should a BA pilot be expected to know? I do know some scorpion stings are fatal, some are excrutiatingly painful and some are no worse than a wasp sting.
I'm glad you were willing to risk the lives of your fellow passengers so that you didn't miss your flight, but I'm glad that the pilot of your flight lived up to his responsibilities and wasn't willing to take that chance.
I also doubt that your second pilot parked at the first open gate he saw. Both ATC and ground ops at LHR would have rather a lot to say to him if he pulled a stunt like that...
That's it. That is his ultimate responsibility. If someone had got stung (not bitten) on the flight after he had taken off, knowing there may be one on board, then he would have been responsible. I'm a biologist - I don't know how bad the stings of scorpions are in that part of the world, so why should a BA pilot be expected to know? I do know some scorpion stings are fatal, some are excrutiatingly painful and some are no worse than a wasp sting.
I'm glad you were willing to risk the lives of your fellow passengers so that you didn't miss your flight, but I'm glad that the pilot of your flight lived up to his responsibilities and wasn't willing to take that chance.
I also doubt that your second pilot parked at the first open gate he saw. Both ATC and ground ops at LHR would have rather a lot to say to him if he pulled a stunt like that...
Jul 18, 2008, 7:42 am
#5
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 2,774
You are breaching FT rules by posting airline staff names in your post.
With regards to the extra passenger, there is no way that BA or its insurer would allow that plane to depart with a poisonous animal loose in the passenger cabin. Sounds like the staff in NCE did not handle the situation very well, but it also sounds like you were not being totally rational yourself.
With regards to the extra passenger, there is no way that BA or its insurer would allow that plane to depart with a poisonous animal loose in the passenger cabin. Sounds like the staff in NCE did not handle the situation very well, but it also sounds like you were not being totally rational yourself.
Jul 18, 2008, 7:46 am
#6
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 2,774
As the plane landed, we taxiied to the first open gate at the first terminal we could see. Stairs were driven over and we deplaned onto two buses that took us right to immigration at terminal 1. The Captain didn't wait for an open gate, or to go to the terminal we were supposed to be at. He made it work for his customers.
Jul 18, 2008, 7:47 am
#7
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You are breaching FT rules by posting airline staff names in your post.
With regards to the extra passenger, there is no way that BA or its insurer would allow that plane to depart with a poisonous animal loose in the passenger cabin. Sounds like the staff in NCE did not handle the situation very well, but it also sounds like you were not being totally rational yourself.
With regards to the extra passenger, there is no way that BA or its insurer would allow that plane to depart with a poisonous animal loose in the passenger cabin. Sounds like the staff in NCE did not handle the situation very well, but it also sounds like you were not being totally rational yourself.
Personally I think the Captain did the right thing. I wouldn't be happy knowing there could be a scorpion on board.
As Jenbel says the Captain is responsible for the aircraft and if he thinks it's not appropriate to fly, then his word goes no matter what you think of him/her.
Jul 18, 2008, 7:51 am
#9
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Names deleted in 5.... 4......
Jul 18, 2008, 7:51 am
#10
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 1,525
The captain was probably worried that he/BA would be the subject of a lawsuit if somebody did actually get bitten... now I wonder where that culture started from...
I stubbed my toe on the kitchen door frame last night and it hurts a bit today. Maybe I could sue the builder of my house for not building the doorway an inch further to the right...
I stubbed my toe on the kitchen door frame last night and it hurts a bit today. Maybe I could sue the builder of my house for not building the doorway an inch further to the right...
Jul 18, 2008, 7:52 am
#11
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I reminded him that the 757s on this route fly a modified business class that has an extra seat on the right side of the aircraft. They usually don't fill that seat on some flights, and he told me that he wouldn't fill those seats as it wouldn't be fair to the business class passengers who had booked on the next flights coming up that day.
There are remote stands. There are busses. It's no surprise. You did go to the terminal you were supposed to be at, just via bus.
You simply got 'lucky' that it worked quickly. Many, many times on here you'll see complaints about the remote stands because you land, wait ages for stairs, wait ages for busses, take a tour of the bowels of LHR on the drive to immigration, etc.
Other than being polite and jovial with you, he did nothing special I'm betting. If pilots really get to randomly park up on a whim and magic up stairs and busses in an instant, one might like to raise questions why this doesn't happen more often.
A bizarre situation for sure. A ridiculous OTT reaction peppered with ill-informed jabbering for sure too.
Jul 18, 2008, 7:53 am
#13
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Notice also the comment
His response, "well, we don't work directly for BA, we are outsourced here, so once again, this isn't our problem."
That sounds all too familiar from my transits through CDG in the last year. I really think BA is walking a very fine line - it's all well and good to save costs, but outsourcing is leaving BA very exposed every time something goes pear shaped.
His response, "well, we don't work directly for BA, we are outsourced here, so once again, this isn't our problem."
That sounds all too familiar from my transits through CDG in the last year. I really think BA is walking a very fine line - it's all well and good to save costs, but outsourcing is leaving BA very exposed every time something goes pear shaped.
Jul 18, 2008, 7:58 am
#14
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Jul 18, 2008, 7:58 am
#15
Join Date: Apr 2007
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Sounds like there was a cockroach on board the flight too. Or at least part of one.