Flight turns into an 8-hour ordealBy Julie Johnsson
Tribune staff reporter
Published February 28, 2007
The trouble with United Airlines Flight 907 started small.
A last-minute switch to a smaller aircraft on Saturday meant some passengers who had traded frequent-flier miles for first-class seats found themselves downgraded to coach. A few were angry—very angry.
Boarding halted while the matter was straightened out. Tempers soothed. And as the last passengers stepped onto the full airliner bound for San Francisco, the first snowflakes—ice pellets, really—started to fall at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
That small glitch, United says, was the difference between leaving before a snow-and-ice storm raked O'Hare and getting caught in the mess that ensued.
No flight fared worse in that storm than UA907. The Boeing 757 languished on the tarmac for seven hours before the pilots finally canceled the flight. It took another agonizing hour to get the plane back to the gate, where exhausted and frustrated passengers stumbled off the jet after midnight.
What is striking is that United's marathon flight to nowhere occurred as the airline industry pledged to take better care of grounded passengers after a Feb. 14 storm left JetBlue Airways passengers stranded on planes at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for up to 10 hours.
"The whole experience was outrageous, particularly in light of what happened with JetBlue at JFK," said George Simmons, a passenger on that United flight.
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Tribune staff reporter
Published February 28, 2007
The trouble with United Airlines Flight 907 started small.
A last-minute switch to a smaller aircraft on Saturday meant some passengers who had traded frequent-flier miles for first-class seats found themselves downgraded to coach. A few were angry—very angry.
Boarding halted while the matter was straightened out. Tempers soothed. And as the last passengers stepped onto the full airliner bound for San Francisco, the first snowflakes—ice pellets, really—started to fall at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
That small glitch, United says, was the difference between leaving before a snow-and-ice storm raked O'Hare and getting caught in the mess that ensued.
No flight fared worse in that storm than UA907. The Boeing 757 languished on the tarmac for seven hours before the pilots finally canceled the flight. It took another agonizing hour to get the plane back to the gate, where exhausted and frustrated passengers stumbled off the jet after midnight.
What is striking is that United's marathon flight to nowhere occurred as the airline industry pledged to take better care of grounded passengers after a Feb. 14 storm left JetBlue Airways passengers stranded on planes at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for up to 10 hours.
"The whole experience was outrageous, particularly in light of what happened with JetBlue at JFK," said George Simmons, a passenger on that United flight.
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