Kid's Toy Delays Trans-Pacific Flight 90 Minutes

I was comfortably seated in business class on a Singapore Airlines 777-300ER recently, ready for an on-time departure from Hong Kong to San Francisco. Boarding was quick and efficient, and all was well...or so it seemed.

We sat waiting for pushback, and the Singapore Girls silently glided through the cabin, serving drinks, offering magazines and newspapers, and readying the aircraft....And we waited....

And we waited....

After 30 minutes, people switched on their electronic devices, and got up to use the lavs. After 60 minutes, I asked the FA serving me my second glass of champagne what was causing the delay.

Her reply:

"A child dropped a toy into part of the aircraft's ventilation system. The engineers are working on it right now."

Yep.

Reason #284 not to bring young kids on the plane. Crosscheck and I have gone on record as being generally against kids on planes, especially long-haul routes. And I personally have taken flack about that on FlyerTalk, MilePoint, and on other blogs. Regardless of your position, you have to admit, there's something silly (and avoidable) about a little kid's toy delaying a trans-Pacific journey by 90 minutes. That was the eventual magnitude of the delay, when we finally landed at SFO.

But...we arrived safely, and (otherwise) uneventfully, and for that I am certainly grateful. Thank you SQ.

Disclaimer: For all I know, it was the parent who dropped the toy down the vent. I'm just telling you what the FA told the pax. Also, the model plane shown here almost definitely isn't the one that clogged up the vents on my flight...

That Would Be a "Bed" Where We Come From

We loved Lufthansa's press release about its new Business Class seating, especially this part:

The new Lufthansa Business Class seat boasts a horizontal sleeping surface measuring 1.98 metres in length.

OK, cool.

But, how is this different from any other long haul seat in C? We're sure it's fine, but...what's the hook? Lie flat? That's old news, dude (unless you're one on of those ancient-config UA 777s).

We did, upon closer reading, discover one detail that will make co-blogger Crosscheck pretty happy:

Two neighbouring seats are angled towards one another along a central axis. This solution enabled Lufthansa to fulfil [sic] one of the main wishes expressed by customers – to sit or lie facing the direction of travel.

Have to say...the seats look nice.

Shanghai Surprise: The Ballad of CO87

What follows is a shortened version of the official flight info for an ill-fated flight from Newark to Shanghai this week.

Our question: How come the FAs didn't lock the lavs when they filled up?

Our favorite phrases used below include:

Due to dispatch technology issues...

...flight release and paperwork were not able to be generated.

...poor customer disposition

In other words: Mistakes were made, but not by us....

OK, here we go:

Flight 87/EWR-PVG experienced an air return to EWR due to all lavatories on the aircraft being full. The aircraft was approximately 5+ hours out of EWR when the decision was made to return to EWR. While in route back to EWR, an investigation...revealed that the lavs were not serviced in EWR prior to scheduled departure as required. ....According to Flight Attendant statements, they observed [before departure] that Tank 1 was 5/8th full, Tank 2 was 3/8th full and tank 3 was 5/8th full....The FA’s assumed that the lav’s would be serviced during the boarding process. Allegedly, no calls were made to SOC to request lavatory service....

Approximately 5 hours into the flight, the on board chimes sounded indicating #3 Tank was full. Shortly after that, Tank 1 was full and one of the lavatories began to overflow. The decision was made to air return....While in route back to EWR, the Lavatories overflow situation became severe enough to warrant a diversion into YYR (Goose Bay, NF)....Lavatories were serviced in YYR, the aircraft fueled and was airborne back to EWR at 22:52 local.

The aircraft was rescheduled to depart at 03:15 with a new crew. Due to dispatch technology issues the flight release and paperwork were not able to be generated....After, retrieving the paperwork and delivering to the crew, the door was closed at 05:35. While attempting to remove the jetway from the aircraft, the CS agent had difficulty. The auto leveler on the gate, Gate 121 had failed and required Facility Maintenance technicians to safely remove the jetway from the aircraft. FX MX was able to remove the jetway at 05:54. At approximately 06:00 the crew requested the jetway be reattached for an ill Flight attendant. The flight attendant was experiencing a severe asthma attack and was transported to the hospital via ambulance at 06:20. The crew duty time expired and the crew made the decision to not waive duty time. 

252 Customers (50 BF) were then deplaned. Customer disposition was poor but managed well by the CS team at EWR....Customers were given meal vouchers and hotels this morning....

There you have it. We hope the asthma-stricken FA recovered OK...