Over the last month or so, we’ve not fallen short of witnessing bizarre in-flight incidents. One such incident happened on a Delta flight that was delayed at JFK airport. The scuffle broke out as passengers grew increasingly agitated over the lack of communication about what was exactly happening.
Delta’s usually known as a carrier that’s operationally very efficient. I’ve flown them multiple times and I’ve been impressed with their overall hard and soft product. However, this Delta flight which was heading to Miami was originally scheduled to take off at 3:52 PM. It got delayed due to poor weather, finally took off after 11 PM and landed in Miami at 2:30 AM.
Delta Flight 2385
The New York Post reports about the chaos that ensued during the delay:
Delta Flight 2385 sat on the tarmac for nearly eight hours at the Queens airport on Thursday, with things getting out of control when sparring broke out, according to a report by FOX 5 News.
“This has gotten out of control — there are people fighting each other and it’s gotten both verbal and physical,” passenger Juan Andres Ahmad wrote on Twitter. “Police are on the plane! Complete chaos!”
Delta did give passengers the option to bus back to the terminal in order to get some refreshments. However, as the wait lingered on, passengers grew increasingly impatient. As passengers started getting into scuffles, the officials of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department has to be called in.
Glenna Milberg, a journalist who was on board, posted a video about what was happening.
The Pundit’s Mantra
It’s a bit surprising that Delta let this linger on for 8 hours. An 8 hour tarmac delay could easily get on anybody’s nerves. I wish Delta could’ve been better at communicating about this delay and getting passengers back to the gate if possible. While I’m glad that nobody got hurt or arrested, it’s really an incident that could’ve been avoided with better communication.
What do you think about Delta’s handling of this delay? Have you experienced similar delays during your travels off late? Let us know in the comments section.
Never miss out on the best miles/points deals. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and Twitter to keep getting the latest content!
Sometimes you need to drink some fluids. We recently flew a delta flight MIA-LGA. Boarding was delayed by about two hours and after boarding the crew decided that it was too dangerous to allow and cabin service in economy so it was 5 hours of NOTHING. after 5 hours which includes waiting and flying, we were offered some lukewarm cups of water, provenance unknown.
That’s really unfortunate. I’m sure they can handle these things better. Needs a lot of employee training to handle these situations and develop some customer empathy.
8 hours??? Fly friggen somewhere!