Alrighty, well heres the deal. A few days ago, as we were cleaning our RON aircraft, we started hearing planes land outside as though this were an aircraft carrier. Yes, obviously, I work at an airport so hearing planes land is nothing new... But, the engine size and number finally made us stick our heads outside of the plane to see what was hitting the fan....
Sure enough, as we poke our heads outside of the CRJ were cleaning, we see US Airways has diversions hitting the ground left and right and the approach corridor to our airport looked like a conga line... Needless to say, during the next 20 minutes the sky started crapping alluminum as though the stars had eaten the world's supply of soft drink cans. The whole airport was covered in diversions from US airways (Small airport, so 10 diversions means business around here, plus other airlines' normally sked arrivals, etc).
So, we laugh and say, "Well, sucks to be US airways tonight, haha", since they will have to work all these diverisons on top of their regularly sked flights. We laugh for a few more moments then go back inside our last CRJ and resume cleaning.... 10 - 15 minutes pass and we hear yet another mainline sounding jet land and all get another laugh. (Were cleaning our RON basically on the taxi way next to the active runway, so you can hear very well). About 10 more minutes pass as we clean, and we can hear this jet sitting very close with it's engines running and wonder "Damn, does this one have to come to their gate?" A few more minutes pass and finally, being full of curiosity as to why this plane is chilling so nearby, we stick our heads outside the main hatch once more..... And wouldn't you know it...............
I'll be damn if it wasn't one of our mainlines that dropped by for fuel.... No one was inside to hear the ground radio or get the teletype warning us, so it was just like....... BAM! DIVERSION!
So, we scramble and find a parking space for the A-320 amid the ocean of blue and grey U-scare planes (Who of course already have all the choice parking spots taken by now). I end up having to park him perpendicular to the end of the concourse opposite of our's, barely leaving a corridor wide enough for United's arrivals and the U-scare diversions to get by when necessary.
Sure enough, Airport OPS has only 1 set of ground stairs running and were #3 in line to use them. (The fuelers won't fuel an airplane that doesn't have a way to evac the pax if there is a fire when fueling, and most planes built during or after the 80's don't have ventral stairs anymore).... So... Were looking at something like a 30 - 45 minute wait before fueling can even begin. I manage to talk the Airport OPS guys into letting me borrow their other shorter stairs and even sweet talk the fuelers into sending a spare truck down to fuel our jet ( I cheat often and jump ahead in line if I can.... Other airlines love me hehe)....
So, cool right? I've knocked off 30 min of ground time for our diversion and jumped him ahead in line considerably for take off in the long run. Sounds like everyone should be happy right? WRONG.... The pilot has something like 20 people that want off the jet to rent a car and drive to their original destination ( 2 hours away by car.... So, yanno...) We don't have the people (There are only 4 of us at the station.... Well, for my airline anyway) and we don't have the time to waste (Less we delay the other 100 people staying on board even longer).... Not good enough...
Long fiasco ensues, the pilot gets pissed that we won't deboard the pax wanting off and that the fuelers are taking so long.... So, even though we've pulled a rabbit out of our arse, its still not good enough..... He finally at long last gets fueled up and has his release printed out and departs (Madder than a penguin with a blow torch between it's tail feather might I add). Next day we find out he's reported us to SOC and raised a big fuss over the event....... Some people just don't care, I swear....
The moral of the story?
Don't laugh when bad things happen to other people / airlines....
You never know when the next alluminum turd to fall from the sky might just have your paint job on it......
(Sorry its a rant, but I thought it was funny and so I'm sharing it with everyone... Well, the short version anyway
).
Tags: Airport Tired Bored Frustrated
