No Jetway Driver

[ItsJustAJob]

This morning, Sept 19, we arrived in CLT with a medical emergency. We had called ahead, everyone was notified. We arrived at gate D12 with the fire truck nearby, paramedics on the jetway, and ramp marshallers in place. Then.....of course......no jetway driver. We waited about 5 minutes for someone to show up. How does this happen? I called ops to advise them that we needed someone to get the jetway to the plane asap and they said that they had notified customer service and were aware that they were a no-show.

We did our job.....got the plane on the ground and to the gate asap. The flight attendants did their job attending to the passenger, getting her moved forward, and relaying all pertinent information to us (and to medlink & dispatch). The ramp personel were on the spot and the paramedics were ready. Then someone dropped the ball. It was pretty embarrassing.

Will anyone ever be called on the carpet and questioned about this? Are we that short staffed? Do managers, shift supervisors, etc. not know how to operate a jetway?

Any insights?

 

[SpinDoc]

This morning, Sept 19, we arrived in CLT with a medical emergency. We had called ahead, everyone was notified. We arrived at gate D12 with the fire truck nearby, paramedics on the jetway, and ramp marshallers in place. Then.....of course......no jetway driver.

Will anyone ever be called on the carpet and questioned about this? Are we that short staffed? Do managers, shift supervisors, etc. not know how to operate a jetway?

Any insights?

Managers are not allowed to operate the jetways because it is a violation of the CWA CBA, however, a manager should have been present and coordinated the CWA personnel so that they were in place when the aircraft blocked in. That doesn't bode well for the Shift Manager on duty at the time, and if nothing is done about this failure, then it is a very shameful situation.

 

[Jester]

Managers are not allowed to operate the jetways because it is a violation of the CWA CBA...

And why unions get a bad reputation with the general public... someone's life was endangered and people quibbled about their sacred work rules? I am reminded of the passage "Which of you shall have a child or an ox fall into a well on the Sabbath day, and will not immediately lift him out?"-- Luke 14:5, as to breaking the rules when there were important reasons. This Pharisaic mentality demonstrates a disregard for common sense to the point of brashly risking public safety.

So Verses Jester.

 

[tadjr]

What time of day was it? Is there a shift covering the gates at that time of the day? Just curious because we have a couple inbounds that have an agent scheduled to meet it 10-15 minutes after they clock in. No problem on most days, but if they get a tailwind and make it in 15-20 mins early, there isnt anyone available to meet it due to staffing unless you pull someone off of a boarding flight, then you might take a delay. Management would much rather have an inbound sit until someone clocks in to meet it than to take a delay on an outbound unles they want a HURRICANE WARNING issued wanting to know why the plane was late.
You would think that with an emergency they would at least pull someone from somewhere to meet it, but not knowing the schedule/staffing during that time frame it would be hard to say if there was someone available that wasnt already meeting/dispatching other flights.
Yes, the staffing is that thin in some places and it isnt going to be getting any better from what I hear. They can barely make a workable schedule now in my city and we're supposedly still overstaffed.

 

[tadjr]

And why unions get a bad reputation with the general public... someone's life was endangered and people quibbled about their sacred work rules?

There was probably no one in Management that knew how to operate a jetway since any agent can tell you (or other contract employee I'm sure) that Management will do as they wish when the need arises and tell you to grieve it if you dont like it or agree with them. A little contract violation isnt going to stop someone from meeting a plane with an emergency (if they know how). There arent even any consequences for the company to pay up for this type of violation so why would anyone in Management even be concerned? Total bs line of reasoning IMO given the company stance on many outstanding grievance issues.

 

[Itestwell]

Really? In Hillbilly Philly?

 

[usa1]

Most likely due to under staffing ... US Airways does not staff for irregularity's. In some stations a part-time agent is responsible for meeting three terminating planes that arrive within a 10 minute window, and there's not even any management on duty. Just two part-time agents, one in baggage and one at the gates? Don't how they would handle any aircraft diversions? Part-timers have to mandatory (OT) themselves if any of the flights run late. Needless to say passengers have to set and wait for a jetway driver just about every night?

 

[ItsJustAJob]

Just to add, we were not a diversion. Scheduled arrival into CLT at 0819....arrived at 0757 (give or take a minute).

 

[PullUp]

Just to add, we were not a diversion. Scheduled arrival into CLT at 0819....arrived at 0757 (give or take a minute).

Had the same situation in PHL about a year ago. No marshallers, no jetway driver. Sad and embarassing. The paramedics who were standing by actually yelled at the marshallers when they did show up. I guess someone will have to die to get things changed. A supervisor was summoned (that took 20 minutes by itself) and all I got was an eye-roll.

 

[Travelpro72]

Ummmm I'm not a gate agent but wouldn't or couldn't a manager demand that an agent from any gate stop their boarding, shut the door and immediately get to that gate with an emergency? A person could die....so they wouldn't pull an agent from a flight already in the middle of the boarding process? Unreal! ! ! No actually I believe it around here. All flights off the gate OR ELSE! ! ! ! Sad....that everyone does their part then BOOM....the ball is dropped.

 

[Hope777]

One of the MANY Shift Managers Could have and SHOULD HAVE pulled up the Jetway (if a C/S Agent was unavailable) !

 

[SparrowHawk]

Had the same situation in PHL about a year ago. No marshallers, no jetway driver. Sad and embarassing. The paramedics who were standing by actually yelled at the marshallers when they did show up. I guess someone will have to die to get things changed. A supervisor was summoned (that took 20 minutes by itself) and all I got was an eye-roll.

Sadly this will not change until someone dies waiting on boards and US gets sued and loses big time either in the settlement or jury award. At US Airways, himan life has been reduced to a calculated risk that the customer won't die on board or while awaiting transport in order to to operate at minimum staffing levels

 

[Harry Callahan]

This morning, Sept 19, we arrived in CLT with a medical emergency. We had called ahead, everyone was notified. We arrived at gate D12 with the fire truck nearby, paramedics on the jetway, and ramp marshallers in place. Then.....of course......no jetway driver. We waited about 5 minutes for someone to show up. How does this happen? I called ops to advise them that we needed someone to get the jetway to the plane asap and they said that they had notified customer service and were aware that they were a no-show.

We did our job.....got the plane on the ground and to the gate asap. The flight attendants did their job attending to the passenger, getting her moved forward, and relaying all pertinent information to us (and to medlink & dispatch). The ramp personel were on the spot and the paramedics were ready. Then someone dropped the ball. It was pretty embarrassing.

Will anyone ever be called on the carpet and questioned about this? Are we that short staffed? Do managers, shift supervisors, etc. not know how to operate a jetway?

Any insights?

I hope you've written a full report on this. I'm sorry to learn of this & pray the psgr. was ok.

With that said I would be willing to bet it's a staffing problem for which there is NO excuse. As some one else said they can not make a workable schedule here as they refuse staff up correctly & folks get excited because of profits.

 

[wings396]

I agree, this is not acceptable in ANY station for ANY reason. With the advance notice given in a Hub station, I would find it hard to believe that there wasn't a gate agent in the concourse that could have been dispatched to your gate. Given that this was a medical emergency, I wouldn't give a hoot who pulled the Jetway up to the A/C, nor would I grieve it if a CWA person wasn't there. I would tend to say that this was a huge communication breakdown on a Managers part since they would have been advised of the emergency by the tower.

 

[necigrad]

I was signed off on jetways several years ago as a ramper. In this situation I'd just pull the jetway up. There's a certain point where common sense has to take over from blind obedience to a CBA, and a medical emergency IMO qualifies for that.