Tue, Jul 13, 2004
Weather Diversions, French Cargo Plane Force UAL Pax To Sit In
777 All Night
It was the red-eye flight from hell
for 155 passengers stuck on a United Airlines 777 in Milwaukee (WI)
-- all night long Friday and into Saturday morning.
UAL 256 was headed to Chicago from Denver when it was diverted
to Milwaukee because of storms. When the aircraft landed at General
Mitchell Field in Milwaukee, a bad situation got worse -- there was
only one gate capable of accommodating the wide-body jet and it was
in use by an Air France cargo flight. It, too, had been diverted
because of weather.
So why not just move the Air France cargo flight? Because in
doing so, the AF crew would have exceeded their maximum allowable
cockpit time. The 155 passengers aboard Flight 256 had to sit on
the tarmac for some seven hours.
"We're looking into why the airport was unable to make other
accommodations for us so we could get passengers off the plane,"
said United spokesman Rich Nelson in an interview with the Chicago
Sun-Times.
"We were all very frustrated," said passenger Dan Nettesheim. He
told the Sun-Times that he lives in Milwaukee, but had his car
parked at O'Hare. "A woman I sat next to had an 11 a.m. wedding in
Chicago, and all her clothes were in her luggage, which they
couldn't get to." Nettesheim said the pilot announced there were
mechanical problems with the aircraft and left the passengers with
nothing more than pretzels and water.
It wasn't until 0500 local time that United, with help from
Northwest, got a moveable stairway in place and deplaned the
passengers. They were then bused to Chicago.
United clearly wants to make good. Nelson said the airline is
offering the passengers who were stranded a round-trip domestic
ticket on the house.
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