A group of American Airlines passengers who were hoping to travel from LaGuardia to Charlotte on Thursday morning were in for quite the travel day when their flight encountered problem after problem, including a diversion and crew change.
Things got off to a bad start when the plane had to return to the gate because one of the passengers had a fake passport. Then, due to a mechanical problem, the plane entered a holding pattern over New York before it diverted to New York JFK where the passengers had to wait around while the airline found a new set of crew to operate the flight.
American Airlines flight AA1023 was due to depart LaGuardia at 8:30 am on August 8 but after pushing back from the gate and starting to taxi to the runway for takeoff, the Airbus A321 aircraft was called back to the terminal after law enforcement discovered that one of the passengers onboard was traveling on a fake passport.
According to witnesses onboard the flight, the wanted passenger was removed from the plane and the flight was eventually cleared to depart LaGuardia for the short flight to Charlotte.
Taking off more than two hours late at around 10:45 am must have been a frustrating experience for everyone onboard, but things were about to get a whole lot more interesting.
Just minutes after takeoff, the pilots were forced to stop their climb at just 10,000 feet after they discovered that one of the landing gears was not retracting properly into the body of the aircraft.
Rather than continuing onto Charlotte, the pilots entered a holding pattern for nearly an hour as they attempted to troubleshoot the issue before they decided to divert to New York JFK, where maintenance teams could take a closer look at the landing gear.
The 15-year-old aircraft ended up landing safely at New York JFK around 75 minutes after departure and just 10 miles from where the plane was meant to have taken off from more than three hours before.
Once on the ground, the passengers then had to endure a three and half hour wait. Initially, the delay was so that engineers could clear the aircraft as airworthy but then a new crew had to be found to get the passengers to Charlotte because the original pilots and flight attendants were at risk of timing out.
Despite all of those problems, the flight ended up landing in Charlotte nearly seven hours late.
Matt’s take
All of these problems must have been so frustrating for the passengers on flight AA1023, who must have been asking ‘what next’ as their travel day went very quickly from bad to worse.
Despite the lengthy delay, however, it’s amazing how well American Airlines dealt with these issues. They managed to get the same plane fixed and a new crew assigned to get the passengers to Charlotte the same day.
You often hear of airlines posting delay upon delay as if they don’t care about getting passengers to their destination, although the reality is very often the exact opposite.
