It’s possible that he could have got his sources confused. You’d think that what’s source for Goose is source for Gander.
I’m kicking myself for not coming up with that. Well played.
Both Goose and Gander barely scrape into the top 50 for passengers getting on or off, with slightly more using Goose than Gander. Gander was in it’s heyday when transatlantic passenger planes stopped to refuel there (which, like Goose Bay, occasionally still happens). Today it is getting rid of its passenger terminal and replacing it with a much smaller one. Gander also has an Air Force base which, like Goose Bay, was used to ferry planes in WWII. Where Gander really stands out is that it controls flight space used by about a thousand planes per day over the western half of the North Atlantic.
Our slogan: “Always a Vacancy!”
Thank you!
Although I was mostly just posting for the sake of a pun just begging to be made. 
I think I’ve been on about sixty round-trip itineraries in my life, each one comprising 3 flights on average, and I’ve* never* been on one that “went off without a hitch.” If that’s defined as – the plane boards on time at the gate that it was scheduled for when I entered the airport, it leaves on time, it has enough space for me to carry on my appropriate luggage, it lands on time and immediately proceeds to a gate and lets me go.
Sure, having to gate-check a bag or move yourself to a new gate while you’re waiting isn’t the end of the world. But the majority of flights I’ve been on have been late. Timetables are taken as a suggestion and there seems to be no concern at all about solving the little peripheral problems. “Without a hitch,” even once, would be quite an improvement.
Keep in mind that people’s capacity for whining about their circumstances can be exceptional. I distinctly remember reading an account by some fashionista during the Gander Sept 11 incident that was bitterly complaining that the FREE underwear that was provided to him wasn’t as comfy as his usual $50/pr items.
Boo Fucking Hoo.
Those barracks are similar to those used by most other military’s, so what those stranded passengers got to sleep on is what the military sleep in* regularly*, if they have a room at all.
elbows, I normally have a lot of respect for what you have to say but in this, you are in the wrong. The equipment necessary to unload the containers is substantial, and was unavailable. Having hand bombed luggage out of said containers from an RCAF Airbus in Key West because they didn’t have the equipment, it took us almost 90 minutes to unload and reloading took even longer and that was with much more slack because we were military.
It would have taken hours to process all the pax back in and in accordance with CBSA policy.
I always find it confusing when people talking about something that happened in Canada and refer to “London” without qualification. I once read an entire article in a Toronto newspaper and had no clue which London it was referring to (although if I had known either location better, I might have found clues, there was nothing obvious). Now given that they had to put down in Labrador coming from Dallas certainly makes London, Ontario unlikely as the final destination, it’s still annoying.
And even more annoying as people talk about London, Ontario in a completely different context and I have no clue if they were confused as well and didn’t get straightened out, are trying to confuse other people, or what. London, Ontario isn’t some podunk little town like Atlanta or St. Louis, Michigan either; it’s the largest city in the densely populated SW Ontario region and the 11th largest city in Canada. Yes, it has an international airport.
A poster in this thread is even from London, Ontario. Maybe they have some insight into this potentially confusing situation.
If in doubt, read for context. If still in doubt, ask.
Whenever someone talks about Moscow and Putin and the Kremlin, I never know if they’re talking about Russia or Moscow, ID. They could be talking about a Russian Studies major at the University of Idaho, right?
Right?
…and I almost complained about a 2 hour flight where the screen in front of me only showed clips constantly of some REALLY BAD Discovery Channel show where the guys grew facial hair like Wolverine & the girls all had broken front teeth.
Evidently the only way to turn the screen off or put something else on was to swipe a credit card to buy a movie & get access to a menu screen.
When you talk about “Russian,” you’re talking about the Russian River in California, right? Great rafting there.
These people who complained are a bunch of whiny bitches, and so sorry, elbows, but you are wrong. Sometimes things go wrong and it behooves us to suck it up and deal. My worst airline story isn’t as bad as any of even sven’s but it’s still pretty bad, and I look back on it now as a worthy story to tell.
See, this is part of the problem with social media - they can complain instantly. Not too long ago they’d be unhappy but by the time they were able to complain they’d already be safely back home and things always look better when you are out of the situation. But now they can complain that moment.
I had to share a single bed with my husband? Oh, the horror!
You don’t know how much logistical work is involved in doing things, you just don’t elbows. No one does until you do it. I work for a not for profit and we do charity events, and every year someone asks me why we don’t just add another one? Well, because it’s four months of work, dolt! Same with the baggage - not only do you have to get it unloaded, but you have to get it reloaded again, when the passengers are all done with it.
Personally as one of the people on these flights who don’t complain, I wish the complainers could be thrown off the Planet Earth into the sun. They are the ones that make things 1000x worse than they need to be, by yelling at the harried staff, by taking up all their times, by being the Special Someone. Funny how much better service I get when I ask nicely and respectfully.
Oh, and I just want to be clear that I am not calling friend elbows a dolt, but rather, the hypothetical person who asks me about a new event every year.
I’m real late to this party. I don’t work for United, and I have read nothing about this incident except what’s in this thread.
Some thoughts in general.
- Different aircraft problems require different levels of urgency to get on the ground. In some cases it’s better to ditch at sea than fly another 20 minutes to New York. In other cases it makes sense to fly a couple hours to get to a place with better passenger accomodations versus dropping in on the nearest airstrip. There are Federal regulations that define some of this, and company policy that fills in some gaps.
- Goose Bay is listed in our manuals as a not-very-good choice for passenger handling considerations, although it’s rated good as an airfield for landing. Different emergencies may also dictate that different aspects of the airfield matter more than others. Tradeoffs of runway length, altitude, weather, availability of crash/rescue, etc.
- There are small airports all over the world which are listed as emergency divert stations. Most are in semi-remote areas with little more than a small town or settlement nearby. Most have some local company that’s on contract to try to handle the mess when an airliner shows up unannounced. Airlines pay something to subscribe to the service, plus a fee of each surprise arrival.
- No passenger would be willing to pay the extra cost to have a fully staffed terminal, enough customer service agents, baggage handlers, taxis, restaurants, etc., standing by 24/7/365 at all these locations. So each of these small-station diverts is a set-up for a poor (but safe) customer experience.
- When one of these things happen, 200 people can all call Central reservations / cust svc at once. And a few of those pax will be uber-special folks with the fancy concierge service. Who can call somebody whose answer will always be “yes, we can do that”, even before they know for a fact they can do whatever is asked. It takes time for the airline to mount a coherent plan, contact the right folks on the ground, etc. Until that gets in place, it’s hardly surprising that 200 complaining folks hear 200 slightly different versions of the evolving plan. Which confusion only gets worse as they start comparing half-understood stories amongst themselves and a massive clusterf*** “game of telephone” ensues.
It would work better if the customer service people could simply say “We know you’re all there in Goose Bay. Get off the damn phone and somebody local in person will be there eventually to take care of you. Meanwhile anything I might tell you will turn out to be inaccurate or obsolete. Goodbye.” Imagine how well that would go over. But that IS the rational thing to do.
5. There absolutely is a pre-written playbook for these events. With customizations for each station’s specifics. What there isn’t is the ability to make all the notifications in real time, instantly get detailed accurate status reports back to HQ, and disseminate this info to all 20,000 customer service agents so whichever one happens to answer the call from passenger X will know the up-to-the-minute state of play.
6. Many of these small divert stations are NOT equipped to get containerized luggage off the big jets. Some can, but far more slowly than you’re used to seeing at a major international gateway city.
7. Angry people get stupider than they are in normal life. Angry people also get impatienter. Neither of which makes things go more smoothly for the whole group. Add the fact that international flights normally have a wide cross section of cultures and languages on board and it can be a combustible mix.
Anaamika, would you please add a charity event for Goose Bay? It needs more motels and taxis.