Circumstances were beyond our control: Air Transat
The runway fiasco at the Ottawa airport that left 570 passengers hot, hungry, thirsty and in nearrioting moods on July 31 was the result of cascading events largely out of its control, Air Transat testified Thursday.
The airline pulled out its brass, its uniformed pilots, even its flight crew leaders to explain how two Montreal-bound flights ended up stranded for five and six hours at Ottawa’s airport — so long that one desperate passenger called 911 for help.
The Montreal-based airline did a credible job of explaining how a set of exceptional circumstances led its planes to be stuck without fuel at the mercy of strapped ground crews and harried thirdparty refuellers.
President Jean-François Lemay pointed to shared responsibility in the “eco-system” of players that make up a modern airport.
Indeed, “creeping delay” and unreliable information given to pilots led them to think departure was imminent — “just another 30 minutes” — which forestalled other action, such as disembarking passengers and busing them to Montreal.
“The delays and the fuel exhaustion of the aircraft from Brussels resulted from a complex chain of events. We assume our share of the responsibility, but all the parameters were not under our control,” said Transat vicepresident Christophe Hennebelle.
“It must be said very clearly that, had we known from the start that the delay would be so long, we would have made different decisions.”
That evening, there was bad weather in both Montreal and Toronto, leading 20 flights to be diverted to Ottawa, on top of 88 scheduled flights arriving or departing. There were so many extra planes, in fact, the airport was running out of places to put them.
Indeed, it was the misfortune of flight TS507 from Rome and TS157 from Brussels to land with nearly empty fuel tanks, only to be parked on a section of runway not normally used to hold aircraft.
As a consequence, it took 90 minutes to move the four diverted Air Transat planes to a place near Hangar 14 where they could be refuelled together.
But the hearing heard about myriad problems that ensued. First Air is the ground services supplier to Air Transat and it wasn’t staffed to handle the sudden influx of planes.
The refuellers were also overwhelmed. More than once, trucks ran dry and had to return to a depot to top up. To complicate matters, TS157 ran out of fuel completely, at one point leaving 324 passengers in the dark and without air conditioning, seeing indoor temperatures rise to 31 C or above.
To repower the plane, a piece of equipment had to be hauled from a non-secure area of the airport, leading to further delays. Then the plane wouldn’t start, requiring another piece of equipment to be transported. At one point, there was a shortage of ladders, required before refuelling can begin.
Diverted planes of the “gasand-go” variety are normally refuelled on a first-come, firstserved basis but that practice went out the window that evening. There was a KLM flight, for instance, that was refuelled and turned around in less than three hours. A giant Airbus A380 from Emirates, meanwhile, also appeared to be fast-tracked.
Air Transat pointed out that eight of the 20 diverted flights had waits of three hours or longer that night, yet it was the only one called to task by the Canadian Transportation Agency, which just concluded two days of hearings.
TS507 pilot Yves Saint-Laurent spoke of his frustration in getting his A310 refuelled. He was told his plane couldn’t be handled in its parking spot on the tarmac, yet he said a plane beside him was being gassed up.
He said he had a tense conversation with a refueller on the ground. “What’s going on? How come it’s taking so long?” he said he asked.
“It’s not my fault. I was directed to refuel the other aircraft first,” came the answer, pointing a finger at the airport authority.
Saint-Laurent, who lives in Ottawa, said the majority of passengers thanked the crew at de-boarding in Montreal. He said he was shocked to discover the “media circus” that awaited Transat in the morning, largely sparked by Twitter, cellphone video and the 911 call.
There was a jarring disconnect between testimony from passengers on Wednesday and Air Transat staff on Thursday. Both pilots said they knew nothing about requests from Ottawa residents to disembark the plane here, though these questions were plainly posed to flight crew.
On-board attendants also said indoor temperatures were close to normal, as were water supplies, statements vehemently contradicted by passengers. As for food, First Air said it could not quickly round up that many catered meals to an idle aircraft that had not cleared customs.
The three-member agency panel focused on Transat’s so-called tariff, which indicates passengers should not be held longer than 90 minutes on a tarmac and which airline staff seemed to know nothing about.
The agency is accepting written submissions until Sept. 8 and expects a decision a few weeks later.
It must be said very clearly that, had we known from the start that the delay would be so long, we would have made different decisions.