Overall Time On The Plane Was More Than A Day

Passengers on an Etihad Airways flight over the weekend got a lot more time on the plane than they bargained for when fog caused a 12 hour tarmac delay.

The flight was scheduled from Abu Dhabi to San Francisco, CA. But fog delayed their takeoff for 12 hours, according to Yahoo news, and by the time they reached their destination, they had spent about 28 hours on the plane.

USA Today reports that the things you might expect to happen in such an incident did occur ... toilets backed up, and there was little food or water served on the plane. One passenger said that rather than feed people on the plane, the crew was seen taking meals to be served on the flight off the aircraft. Only one meal was served during the entire 12 hour delay.

The Associated Press reports that passengers were told by the flight crew that the airport was too crowded with other flights stopped by the fog to allow them to go to a gate and get off the plane.

And while the 12-hour delay was bad enough, it wasn't the longest delay on an Etihad flight Saturday due to the fog. Another plane scheduled to fly to Dusseldorf, Germany sat on the tarmac for 13 hours waiting for departure clearance. On that fight, a 73-year-old man died during the trip, though his passing has not been tied to the delay. The fight was diverted to Vienna, Switzerland because of the medical emergency.

Etihad spokeswoman Katie Connell said in an email to USA Today that the airline had apologized to the passengers "for the significant delay they experienced during the unprecedented fog disruption at Abu Dhabi Airport." Connell said that the passengers were provided food and information about the delays, which were compounded when the flight crew exceeded its allowed flight time and had to be replaced.

(Image from file)

FMI: http://strandedpassengers.blogspot.com/