Southwest flight 1643

Well, it's Southwest... you know those people down south don't use snow tires.

Seriously though -- it is slicker than snot here. I just watched a neighbor kid walking his dog. The dog was walking, the kid was skating behind it, seriously. In shoes. Talked to my son, he wasn't able to get into his driveway (Accord, new tires) without taking a run at it. I'm about to go toss ice melt on the driveway and sidewalks.
 
I wonder what the pilot reported as far as braking action was?

"Tower, Southwest 1643, reporting braking action sucks.... errr....I mean NIL."
 
I doubt that the pilot had his mic keyed.

The cockpit recorder would have it. I doubt it will get released.
 
Some of the pax comments on these incidents are priceless

"He did a good job of controlling it. I thought, you know, my thing is with the ground crew. Man, they missed a spot,” said Ray Mac, a passenger on the United flight.

Right. It’s the ground crews fault.

“Shuttle buses had to come out and take us in groups back to the actual airport," said one Delta pax.

You were already on the actual airport. You just went to the terminal.

Geesh.
 
@SkyDog58 .. and then there were the days of your where you shuttle bussed from the terminal to your airplane... and not that long ago either...
 
AggieMike88 said:
@SkyDog58 .. and then there were the days of your where you shuttle bussed from the terminal to your airplane... and not that long ago either...
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Depends on the airport. The original design for IAD was quite elegant with the mobile lounges, but they never really adapted the system for security checkpoints nor could it really deal with the hub-and-spoke post-degreg environment (that and Dulles not having enough gates in the original design).
 
I can remember walking down the stairs and under the terminal and then walking out on the ramp to the airplane...both stateside and overseas.

I think it was Montreal that had the elevator buses that came out to the aircraft, raided up and you got on, it lowered and then drove to the terminal and raised back up.
 
I've had the bus from a regional ramp gate to the terminal as recently as 9 years ago. And within the last year, I've been on a plane that was exiting both front and rear doors, and climbed down the stairs, walked across the ramp, and into the terminal, just to have to ride the escalator back to the terminal floor.
 
AggieMike88 said:
@SkyDog58 .. and then there were the days of your where you shuttle bussed from the terminal to your airplane... and not that long ago either...
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Still, you are on the airport.

When I left my job at LAX in 2011, they still had remote pads that they’d bus people to and from. There are also airports around the world where they still do it. Done it a couple of times in China.
 
flyingron said:
Depends on the airport. The original design for IAD was quite elegant with the mobile lounges, but they never really adapted the system for security checkpoints nor could it really deal with the hub-and-spoke post-degreg environment (that and Dulles not having enough gates in the original design).
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I was trying to remember which place was designed with the moon buggies and was failing. Thanks for updating memory banks that it was Dulles.
 
Craig said:
I can remember walking down the stairs and under the terminal and then walking out on the ramp to the airplane...both stateside and overseas.

I think it was Montreal that had the elevator buses that came out to the aircraft, raided up and you got on, it lowered and then drove to the terminal and raised back up.
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JFK used them, as well. They have a perpetual gate shortage and have always used hardstands, especially during bad weather when departure delays further tie up the gates. More generally, they use hard stands more for arrivals than departures. Usually a gate opens up before the plane's next scheduled departure.

Until the late 1990s, JFK used purpose-built buses equipped with hydraulic lifts to get people from the hardstands to the terminals (and less often, from the terminals to the hardstands). The whole bus body was raised to the level of the aircraft, loaded up with pax, and lowered again. They had some fancy name for the buses, but I forget what it was offhand.

The problem was that the elevator buses were constantly breaking down, and parts for them were very hard to get because no one made them anymore; so in the early 2000s, they switched to regular buses and motorized jetways built on pickup truck bodies. One side mates snugly with the plane and the other with the bus, so it's comfortable, weather-tight, and secure.

Rich
 
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The people movers!

15839v-1.jpg
 
AggieMike88 said:
and then there were the days of your where you shuttle bussed from the terminal to your airplane... and not that long ago either...
Click to expand...

Which brings up the memory of the time I was trying to jumpseat from Houston Intercontinental to College Station on Continental Express. We loaded onto the bus, the nice lady drove us to the plane and we all got onboard. The FA closes the door, the engines start up, and the pretty FA gives us the standard safety briefing, then ends with ''Sit back, relax and enjoy the flight to Lake Charles..." I think to myself, ''self, you got on the wrong bus.!!'' As the plane starts to move several passenger speak up and say they are going to College Station....the FA ask if everyone is going to College Station and every one nods their head. She immediately goes up front, the plane jerks to a stop and a second later the engines shut down, a bus pulls up and we all off load the plane and load up on the bus. The nice lady drives us to another plane, and this time we all ask where this plane is going.... :lol::lol::lol:

Air travel used to be so much fun.!!
 
Sounds similar to the "Cute Blonde in First Class" story.
 
The use of hard stands, stairs, and busses is still quite common outside the US. I see it a lot in Mexico and the Caribbean. Common on widebodies at airports such as Frankfurt. Used busses/stairs on a Lufthansa A340 in Frankfurt and Bahrain.
 
AggieMike88 said:
@SkyDog58 .. and then there were the days of your where you shuttle bussed from the terminal to your airplane... and not that long ago either...
Click to expand...
The first time I flew in a commercial jet (1980s) it was raining; I had to use an umbrella to walk out to the stairs where the airplane was parked. They collected the brollies at the top of the stairs. A little different now.
 
Zeldman said:
Which brings up the memory of the time I was trying to jumpseat from Houston Intercontinental to College Station on Continental Express. We loaded onto the bus, the nice lady drove us to the plane and we all got onboard. The FA closes the door, the engines start up, and the pretty FA gives us the standard safety briefing, then ends with ''Sit back, relax and enjoy the flight to Lake Charles..." I think to myself, ''self, you got on the wrong bus.!!'' As the plane starts to move several passenger speak up and say they are going to College Station....the FA ask if everyone is going to College Station and every one nods their head. She immediately goes up front, the plane jerks to a stop and a second later the engines shut down, a bus pulls up and we all off load the plane and load up on the bus. The nice lady drives us to another plane, and this time we all ask where this plane is going.... :lol::lol::lol:

Air travel used to be so much fun.!!
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At Charlotte E5 and E5A use the same door to the ramp. Even worse is that the door opens to 5A. 5 is hidden behind the 5A aircraft.

I was working a flight to Charleston, WV off 5 with a Charleston, SC flight on A leaving at the SAMETIME! The passenger boarding was going smoothly until the last guy gets on at which point I hear a argument between two passengers and the FA. A few seconds later the FA comes up and tells us we have a problem and shows us the two passenger boarding passes. I happened to look over and see the 5A aircraft closing up and noticed their info board said Charleston, SC.

Come to find out we had traded both passengers and baggage and it came down to one guy preventing us from flying 50 people to the wrong Charleston!! :D

It only took 30 minutes to switch the passengers between the two planes. :rolleyes:
 
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