Yesterday I wrote in passing about my flight delay from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, as a result of my inbound aircraft being delayed by about five hours.
Reader PST Andy commented on the post with a link to an ABC7 Los Angeles article about a delayed flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
I’m not sure whether I’m more amused by the fact that this was the inbound of my flight, or the fact that this is quite possibly the least interesting airline delay story I’ve ever read:
They’re calling it the flight from hell. Passengers heading to Las Vegas from L.A. say what was supposed to be a 45-minute flight turned into an hours-long ordeal at Los Angeles International Airport.
“We sat on the runway for five hours in baking heat and they ran out of water,” said passenger Gem Tootill.
Passengers say the flight attendants disappeared and they couldn’t get any information about the delay.
An American Airlines spokesperson says the reason for the delay was an air traffic control hold due to heavy rain and flooding in Las Vegas.
The spokesperson said the plane was on the tarmac for two hours — not five, which is what passengers are claiming. The airline said the plane was brought back to the gate so passengers could get off and wait, but that’s not what people on board said happened.
So due to horrible weather in Las Vegas they sat on the “runway” for five hours… or two hours… and the passengers weren’t allowed to get off… or maybe they were…
And they couldn’t get any information about the delay, which I’m sure had nothing to do with the fact that it was a weather delay.
Apparently it was even worthy of “on the scene” reporting, as they sent a reporter to LAX late at night to cover it (hours after the flight, but it does add to the credibility of the story by having them discuss this in front of LAX, I suppose).
The story seems straight out of The Onion to me, down to the video reporting.
That’s perhaps the second least insightful news graphic ever, after the below one from CNN’s 24/7 Malaysia coverage.
(Photo credit @andrewrtw)
For what it’s worth, when I boarded in Las Vegas the plane was still hot as there seemed to be some issue with the APU. The captain announced something along the lines of “our air isn’t working and I’ve been telling them to fix it all day, but they haven’t listened.” Gotta love when a company’s representative blames things on “them.”
Anyway, it all gave me a good chuckle…
...that's local LA news for you. Come back when it's raining (they've got catchy names like Storm Watch 201X), and you'll make it to the front pages again (and likely a slew of delays).
Travel well!
LOL that facial expression! Coupled with that makeup and hair, I just can't.
She might be one of the disappearing flight attendants, who went to record the segment ?
Weather delays at the airport are tiny compared to what those storms did. I have colleagues who had a 7 hour driving detour because sections of I-15 were washed out between Las Vegas and Mesquite. These storms did some impressive damage!
That facial expression is awesome.