Air India plane stranded at Gatwick en-route to Heathrow

[Nawdic]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15329162

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Passengers have been stranded on a plane at Gatwick Airport for more than eight hours after fog caused their flight to be diverted.

The Air India flight was on its way from Mumbai to Heathrow Airport when the weather conditions forced it to divert to Gatwick at about 08:00 BST.

A BBC World Service reporter on board, Rahul Joglekar, said the mood on the plane was becoming heated and the police had been called to calm the situation.

Put short, rather than Air India supply coaches to go to Heathrow, they banned everyone from exiting the plane, and so far have been stuck stricken on the Air India plane for so far 6 hours and only 40 miles from Heathrow.

Your oppinions please.

[orudge]

Well, from the airline's point of view, they can't just take them out at Gatwick without them having to pass through customs and immigration, plus sort out baggage and so on, none of which Air India has (presumably) paid for at Gatwick. Then you have people with connections (which I guess they'd have missed already, but never mind) that they'd have to consider. This would particularly be an issue for folks who were intending to transfer at Heathrow without a visa (since Indian nationals visiting the UK require a isa, I believe) - they wouldn't have been able to get through immigration. So, if it were only a short delay, then it would seem more reasonable to get them to their final destination as planned rather than attempt to disboard. Having them wait 8 hours on the plane is a bit much, though. I understand they had to wait for a new crew as the existing crew would have exceeded their working hours.

[Kevo00]

Well, they should at least give the passengers involved a refund, and compensation for any other losses incurred.

[John]

Well, from the airline's point of view, they can't just take them out at Gatwick without them having to pass through customs and immigration, plus sort out baggage and so on, none of which Air India has (presumably) paid for at Gatwick. Then you have people with connections (which I guess they'd have missed already, but never mind) that they'd have to consider.

Except, apparently, Air India used to do this a lot to avoid the higher fees of using Heathrow.

The only reason they didn't do it was to avoid the cost of disembarking people at Gatwick and bussing them up to Heathrow. It was a stupid management decision based on finance which will most likely end up costing considerably more based on damage to brand and the resulting law suits / compensation.

Bearing in mind the plane was parked up, and had steps up to the aircraft - the landing fees and parking fees were already having to be paid. Had they bused the people up to heathrow (and bused the next lot down) it would possibly have not only been much, much quicker, but also cheaper. The hop to heathrow will have incurred fuel costs and additional runway and parking charges.

[teccuk]

Good points john, but i also get what Orudge is saying.

Couldn't they have 'locked' in a departure gate so they at least get to walk around and use a proper loo?

[John]

Yes - Gatwick Airport is on record as saying they offered to deplane, keep in departure lounge, bring food and drink etc. for the passengers.

Air India refused all offers except that of water.

Gatwick Airport stated that while passengers were on an aircraft there was nothing they could do to help and it was all in the hands of the airline.

[Pilot]

It would have been the Captains decision not the Airlines. This another case of the pilot who makes the wrong decision.
Also the Visibility must have been really bad as all modern Airliners and Airports have ILS which could of landed the plane if it had to.

[John]

Not necessarily - the airline will have its policies that the captain has to follow. If the captain asked the airline for guidance, and they said no, he could have only deviated from it on safety grounds.

The other problem is that this is Air India - a highly bureaucratic airline (due to being government owned). Apparently all decision making is only done by "higher" management. Which means it can take a good few hours, or longer, for them to hear about something they need to make a decision about.