Hostage Release: New Regs Will Limit Wait Times on Airport Tarmacs
No. 6: Last time I flew, the plane pulled up to the jetway on its own power. In fact, it’s been like that every time I’ve flown, as far back as I can remember. Possibly policy differs at some airports or at some carriers.
I arrived yesterday at LAX (Dec 24) on Air New Zealand flight NZ2 flight from Auckland. The plane was a Boeing 747-400. For whatever reason, they stopped the plane well short of the terminal and a tug took us the rest of the way. I’ve never had this happen on any other airline flight that I can recall at LAX or anywhere else, but it happened yesterday to us yesterday.
My worst horror story happened in 1979. We took off from Atlanta in a Stretch DC-8 and flew to Bangor, Maine to get fuel and food for a flight to Germany. Bangor was fogged in so the pilots shot a missed approach and diverted to Philadelphia. We arrived at about midnight. They wouldn’t let us off the plane nor did they have anyone there to refuel the plane or connect the air conditioning on a hot summer night. There was no food or water, either. We had to wait until about 0800 for the plane to be refueled, then we flew to Germany with no food or water. We received a $10 voucher for food when we arrived. Over the years, I’ve experienced several other delays inside a plane but nothing as bad as that flight.
