Every time Mr. Neville flies without me, I check his flight status online. It’s morbid, but this question always occurs to me. What did the online flight status for American Airlines flight 11, for example, say on 9/11, after it had crashed into the WTC? I don’t think they would have let relatives find out that their loved ones were dead from an online flight status, but I find it equally implausible that the status showed the flight as still going OK. What did it show?
As I remember it, all the flight status information went off-line shortly after the planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, so no status information was available for any flight.
Does anyone know if this was deliberate, or just because too many people were trying to get to it? I remember how slow the news sites were that day.
There was also the problem of the grounding order. A lot of places weren’t really sure where their flights were. Oh, somebody in the system knew, but they had more important things to worry about than updating flight status online.
Under normal circumstances (i.e. not 9/11), if a plane goes down I believe the monitors in the airport just say “Check with agent” or something like that, instead of “Arriving on time” or whatever. I would imagine the online system would say something similar.
If your flight information says “check with agent” should you be very worried? Or are there also non-horrific reasons you might be directed to check with the agent?
Well, I’m sure it would say that if there were a man on the wing of the plane.
Is that horrific? YMMV.
It’s “See Agent,” typically.
A quick google indicates that flights that were cancelled because of the Big Volcanic Ash Cloud last year apparently showed “See Agent,” at least at some airports. So it’s not necessarily true that this status message indicates a plane crash, but it definitely indicates a big complicated thing you’re not going to be happy about, at minimum.
Flights do get diverted due to sick or injured passengers, that reason is a lot more common than “plane crash”.
I can’t think of a single unexpected thing involving air travel that has ever made me happier then I was before it happened.
Oh, wait – one time the ticket agent found out we were on our honeymoon and upgraded us to First Class. Okay, that’s one thing.
Here sir, take this pill, there’s no one on the wing.
Yeah, the guy at the Rockland, ME airport (which is a doublewide trailer) not only let me leave my bags and wash up in the bathroom (I’d just come off six days on a schooner), he also put me in a cab to Portland to catch a better flight, first class, because they’d overbooked the puddle jumper I was scheduled for. And my connection in Logan was too tight anyway. So that’s the one unexpected thing in my life that’s been nice regarding air travel.
There have been plenty other unexpected things, though.
This happened to me once - my flight out of Providence was overbooked, so they put me on a cab to Logan - which then broke down on the interstate. So instead of being stranded in the airport I was stranded on I95.
I was monitoring one of my Mom’s flights into town one day when the status went to “check with agent.” I thought the same thing you did, but when I called, the plane was going to be more than two hours late due to storms in the area and flights diverting and then lining up to land. I guess, “really, really, really delayed” wasn’t a good status 
I remember calling (United’s, probably) phone system to check on a flight my dad was on back in the mid 90’s (pre-Internet ubiquity). I can’t remember exactly the wording, but it told me it was transferring me to an agent…and for about thirty seconds it took for the transfer to happen and an agent picked up, I was really worried…but it was some sort of extended delay.
I was once delayed several hours at the end of a trip to Cuba because the plane that was supposed to be used for the travel leg I was waiting for had to undergo unexpected maintenance. I think the delay was about 11 hours or so.
Maybe it’s my interest in the field, but I was happy for the delay. In a case like that, I’d rather know the aircraft is being maintained and returned to airworthy status than get home “on time”.
Then again, we found out about this while still at the resort, and they re-opened some day rooms and let us use all the facilities - including the all-inclusive food and beverage plan - until we left for the airport. That made it nice too!
“Really, really, really delayed” would be a good online flight status for a plane that has crashed.