Northwest Gets Slammed On Msnbc

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etops1

Veteran
Dec 6, 2003
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northwest just got slammed on msnbc for leaving passengers stranded for 35 hrs on nw flt 33 EHAM-KSEA . aparrently the plane had to divert to moses lake ,wahshington due to fog in sea. the pax were not let off because there was no customs at moses lake . by the time the fog lifted in sea the nwa crew went illegal. so they had to fly in a crew from sea to take these pax to sea. when ready to depart a mechanical occured delaying the flt even more . all in all the whole trip lasted 35 hrs. they landed in sea at around 6:am. sounds like the nwa incident that happened in dtw in the snow on the 747 .
the media loves bashing the airlines.
 
etops1 said:
northwest just got slammed on msnbc for leaving passengers stranded for 35 hrs on nw flt 33 EHAM-KSEA . aparrently the plane had to divert to moses lake ,wahshington due to fog in sea. the pax were not let off because there was no customs at moses lake . by the time the fog lifted in sea the nwa crew went illegal. so they had to fly in a crew from sea to take these pax to sea. when ready to depart a mechanical occured delaying the flt even more . all in all the whole trip lasted 35 hrs. they landed in sea at around 6:am. sounds like the nwa incident that happened in dtw in the snow on the 747 .
the media loves bashing the airlines.
[post="233857"][/post]​
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This flight was Murphy's Law personified. Right down to the Lear Jet carrying the relief crew from MSP blowing a tire on taxi (that was the mechanical mentioned, by the way). Why they didn't just divert to PDX or even YVR (NW staff and Customs at both) is beyond me.
 
etops1 said:
northwest just got slammed on msnbc for leaving passengers stranded for 35 hrs on nw flt 33 EHAM-KSEA . aparrently the plane had to divert to moses lake ,wahshington due to fog in sea. the pax were not let off because there was no customs at moses lake . by the time the fog lifted in sea the nwa crew went illegal. so they had to fly in a crew from sea to take these pax to sea. when ready to depart a mechanical occured delaying the flt even more . all in all the whole trip lasted 35 hrs. they landed in sea at around 6:am. sounds like the nwa incident that happened in dtw in the snow on the 747 .
the media loves bashing the airlines.
[post="233857"][/post]​
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Is Norman Mineta going to begin an investigation?
 
North by Northwest said:
Whomever was in charge of selecting "Moses Lake" as a landing point needs to lose their job. Is it NWA Ops, or ATC? Why would you send a crew from MSP when you have crews in SEA? Ever heard of landing in Portland? Vancover?
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North by Northwest said:
Whomever was in charge of selecting "Moses Lake" as a landing point needs to lose their job. Is it NWA Ops, or ATC? Why would you send a crew from MSP when you have crews in SEA? Ever heard of landing in Portland? Vancover?
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Sorry for the repeat post, I'm new here. From what I understand, the Captain was running low on fuel, and I also admit not knowing distances to other cities from SEA as to why they chose Moses Lake. About the crew, SEA is a much smaller base, close to the end of the month - reserves may have been running close to max hours in SEA vs MSP which is a much larger base and reserves have a harder time getting their hours in.
 
North by Northwest said:
Whomever was in charge of selecting "Moses Lake" as a landing point needs to lose their job.
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He probably thought he was landing in Portland but ended up at the wrong airport... :blink:
 
Selecting reasonable alternates and ensuring they can be used in the appropriate amount of time is the responsibility of the pilot and dispatcher. There really is no excuse for dropping an int'l widebody into a small regional airport. The plane should have been diverted when there was still time to go to more suitable alternates.

I was passing through CVG several years ago when AA flagstopped a FRA-DFW D10 for fuel (due heavy cargo). (my brother works for AA and was able to look up more details). DL was the only int'l and widebody operator in CVG at the time and DL doesn't operate D10s. After refueling, AA couldn't get one of the engines started. After bringing the plane back to the gate and asking TW to work on the airplane, they determined parts needed to be brought in (a pretty reasonable guess). AA had to cancel the flight but DL was using all of the int'l gates for its operation and Customs and Immigrations didn't want AA passengers mixed up with DL passengers since none of the AA passengers now had flights out of CVG. After an hour or so, AA towed the plane to the gate and radioed their ticket counter w/ the name of each passenger as they deplaned (like they couldn't have been able to pull up a departure list out of FRA and assumed that everyone that boarded in FRA was still on the plane) and sent all bags to local AA claim. A few passengers were able to get out that night on various carrier flights but most overnighted in CVG.

My brother said the original plan was to divert to ORD but it was having weather problems so DTW was the next alternate. Pilot didn't want it so they went to CVG. To the best of his knowledge, my brother never heard of another AA diversion of any kind to CVG.

NW's recent incident is particularly troubling given the problems they had in the winter storm several years ago at DTW and MSP. Although the situation was a bit different, the problems encountered by passengers were very similar.

Combined with the US and Comair problems, it is almost certain the government will come up with some new punitive rules that will only make it harder on the legacy carriers.
 
WorldTraveler said:
Selecting reasonable alternates and ensuring they can be used in the appropriate amount of time is the responsibility of the pilot and dispatcher. There really is no excuse for dropping an int'l widebody into a small regional airport. The plane should have been diverted when there was still time to go to more suitable alternates.
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There is nothing like monday morning quaterbacking.
Does anybody really know what the weather at that time was like at
Portland, Vancuver or Spokane?
Weather can be a very good reason for dropping an int'l widebody into anywhere!
 
North by Northwest said:
Whomever was in charge of selecting "Moses Lake" as a landing point needs to lose their job. Is it NWA Ops, or ATC? Why would you send a crew from MSP when you have crews in SEA? Ever heard of landing in Portland? Vancover?
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even assuming that PDX and YVR may have has the same fog problems as SEA, why they chose MWH (Moses Lake/Ephrata) over GEG (Spokane) as the alternate is what I cannot figure out. GEG's got a nice passenger facility, 24-hour Customs, and NW staff!
 
mistified,
I can assure you that the DOT will be doing some Monday morning quarterbacking. Aside from an emergency, there is nothing that tells an airline where they have to divert. It is simply irresponsible to voluntarily divert an international widebody aircraft to an airport incapable of handling the flight or the aircraft. If it came down to a fuel emrgency, the pilot waited too long to divert. I cannot imagine the flight left AMS with Moses Lake as an alternate.

I have checked and there were diversions from SEA due to weather. I am not aware that any of the other flights turned out as badly as this NW international flight.
 
mistified said:
There is nothing like monday morning quaterbacking.
Does anybody really know what the weather at that time was like at
Portland, Vancuver or Spokane?
Weather can be a very good reason for dropping an int'l widebody into anywhere!
[post="234010"][/post]​
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PDX was wide open.
 
Kev3188 said:
PDX was wide open.
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The person at SOC that made the decision was the same person from MSP that told the planes in snowy DTW to sit on the runway, he was a "United spy", we've been infiltrated, he is in interogation with 4 Senior (40years each) MSP based, ice cold " NWO Stewardesss , Madge, Marge, Freda, and Rita. Very tough "you betcha girls".....:lol: :p This will NEVER happen again!
 
You'd think they would be harping on the bigger Northwest story of Northwest transferring many of the baggage handling responsibilities at larger stations to Pinnacle and Mesaba, who then had their newhire ramp workers quit when the going got tough. Ouch. It's the new market reality; it's not a career, it's just a low paying job.
 
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