Plane Diverted To PBI, Pax Held Onboard
It was a perfect storm, of sorts... as nearly everything that
could go wrong onboard American Airlines 1908 -- a flight from
Port-Au-Prince, Haiti to Miami -- did. The resulting fiasco kept
145 passengers onboard an Airbus A300 for 10 hours Sunday, and into
the wee hours of Monday morning.
Speaking of storms, it was a line of strong thunderstorms in
South Florida that kept the plane from landing in Miami as
scheduled Sunday night. That delay came after the plane left
Port-au-Prince nearly 30 minutes late... starting a domino effect
of bad luck.
First, the flight was diverted to Fort Lauderdale... but weather
meant the plane couldn't land there, either. The Miami Herald
reports the plane was then sent to Palm Beach International
Airport.
The airliner touched down at PBI at 8:52 pm local time... over
three-and-one-half hours after it left Haiti. As it turns out,
however, that was only the beginning... as passengers were held
onboard the plane, due to Customs issues. The Customs and Border
Protection office at PBI had closed at 5 pm.
Shortly after the plane landed, American called CBP to request
that an ill passenger be deplaned, said CBP special agent and
spokesman Zachary Mann. An agency officer met the plane, and
allowed paramedics to offload the passenger.
But the rest of the
passengers were kept onboard the plane... and CBP is at a loss to
explain why American didn't ask for special processing for everyone
onboard.
"If we had been requested to process the plane, we would have
been able to work with the airline and respond to that," Mann said,
adding Customs assumed the airliner had been able to takeoff
again... until paramedics advised the agency a second, pregnant
passenger needed to be removed from the plane. That call came over
four hours after Flight 1908 landed, the Herald reports -- around 1
am Monday morning.
"In this whole process, it was our belief and our hope that the
flight would leave earlier," American spokeswoman Martha
Pantín explained. "That is why we did not call Customs."
While the plane sat on the tarmac at PBI, a new flight crew was
also brought in... as the original flight crew ran out of duty
time. Finally, at 1:14 am, the plane departed Palm Beach, heading
once again for Miami. The flight arrived at the gate at MIA at 3:05
am.
Passenger Mouna Boulos said throughout the ordeal, those onboard
the airliner were each given a bag of chips to eat.
"They kept us almost 10 hours. This is not fair," she said.
"It was an unfortunate set of circumstances," Pantín
admitted, adding the airline has begun contacting passengers to
apologize.
It is also the continuation of an unfortunate pattern for
American Airlines, which has seen a number of its planes stranded
at non-destination airports over the past five months due to storm
diversions. As Aero-News reported,
American flight 1348 was stranded in Austin, TX December 29, after
storms over DFW prevented the plane from landing. Passengers were
kept onboard the plane inbound from San Francisco for over eight
hours.
The incident spurred renewed interest in passing a "Passengers
Bill of Rights," which among other items would set a maximum time
passengers could be kept onboard a commercial flight before being
offloaded. The movement gained added traction following a rash of
similar incidents stemming from snowstorms in the Northeast.
Jim Berard, director of communications for the House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told the Herald little
action has been taken on the proposed legislation. Instead, Berard
said, Congressman James Oberstar has encouraged airlines and the
DOT to work together to establish a set of rules for handling such
incidents.
In February, American said it would set a maximum limit of four hours passengers
could be kept onboard its planes. The carrier later
said that limit was a goal, however, and not a guarantee...
something passengers onboard flight 1908 can attest to.