advice? thomson scary emergency landing = cancelled flight then long delay

23rdspiral

Hi Thanks, it does help.

Well done on finding this through a google search. I've not written yet, and when i do it will be partly to congratulate the pilot and crew on getting us down safely.

Yet I do also want an explanation - and i'll admit i'm irritated that some people were given vouchers and some not! i had no cash left after buying duty free the first time round!

my fella and i were worried about the people we were originally sitting near as they said on landing they were off to celebrate being alive and we didnt see them again... it wasn't you was it? i'll pm you, and let you know if i recieve an answer.

one thing i can say, is that after taking even more herbal kalms, i was totally chilled on the second flight! more than ever before!! and i was very happy they gave us a free hot meal as that took away my travel sickness too (it had been too long since i'd eaten).

oh, and a new shiney replacement suit case came yesterday. it's not the same designer brand or shocking pink, but it'll do nicely.

muppet83

I'd write if I was you.
Yeah things go wrong, and the pilots sounds great, but a bit of after care isn't too much to expect. You most likely will only get an apology but at least you'd of had a chance to say your bit.

And some of you really should be ashamed, spiral asked for a bit of friendly advice and get abuse instead. Lets hope some of you get spoken to in the same manner next time you want some help.

headpin

I've lost the plot here. Scary emergency landing? I take it the plane had already left with you on board from Gran Canaria and then either returned there or to another airport to make and emergency landing? If not, how were you involved in the emergency landing?

23rdspiral wrote: »

...........

it was a 'green hydraulic' that broke - and on landing we had no way to steer - which sounds like a faulty badly checked plane to me, not an act of god!

If it was a hydraulic pipe/connection that was faulty and you were already airborne, I'm not clear why you would have needed to return to point of take off as from the info provided it only sounds like something that affects the steering through the nose wheel once on the ground and not the airworthiness of the aircraft. Normally you would have continued to the destination and it would have been dealt with there.

I'm not sure why there is any discussion about how fortunate or not you were and the use of the word “emergency” is irrelevent too. The airline is liable under the Regulations unless it is an occurrence outside of its contol. If they try to rely on a faulty piece of equipment they must then demonstarte why they did not keep adequate and suitable replacements/spares and technical support from wherever they are operating. They are not expected to have spare aircraft sitting around, but if it's a fixable fault they are expected to have access to the spares and labour to make the repair ASAP.

I'm not sure why some posts think it's OK for an airline to have no contingency or similar plans yet expect the poor old passenger to take the brunt. I can accept things happen and that we must be prepared for a bit of rough, gbut it's how they are dealt with that often rankles people.

23rdspiral

headpin wrote: »

I've lost the plot here. Scary emergency landing? I take it the plane had already left with you on board from Gran Canaria and then either returned there or to another airport to make and emergency landing? If not, how were you involved in the emergency landing?

If it was a hydraulic pipe/connection that was faulty and you were already airborne, I'm not clear why you would have needed to return to point of take off as from the info provided it only sounds like something that affects the steering through the nose wheel once on the ground and not the airworthiness of the aircraft. Normally you would have continued to the destination and it would have been dealt with there.

Hey, thanks for your reply. I appreciate the opinion.

The plane did leave with us on it, and then we returned to Gran Canaria as according to the pilot it was "safer to return to GC as they have a nice long runway, and there will be lots of fire engines waiting to escort us once we land."

I hope that helps you understand. I and another from the flight would really like to understand more about the decisions made too.

bagand96

From what I understand reading through the thread:

- You took off from Gran Canaria and had to return due to a technical problem
- Thomson didn't provide a great deal of information at the time
- Thomson did provide some passengers with €10 refreshment vouchers during the resultant delay although you, and others seem not to have recieved them
- You took of again approx 5 hours later returning to the UK around 5 hours late (not clear whether the same aircraft or a different one, although it is pretty irrelevant)
- Thomson provided you with a free hot meal on the plane home

Firstly, I would suggest you write sooner rather than later, its already 10 days after the event, the longer you leave it the longer it will drag on.

As others have suggested, I think the only complaint you have with Thomson is the lack of refreshments and information during the delay. However this is already in question as it seems they were providing €10 vouchers. Is there a chance you could have missed these or missed announcements/information regarding them? I am not criticising you, but delay situations in airports can be confusing, announcements can be missed, or not even made etc.. It does seem odd some passengers got their hands on them.

You have also stated you had a free hot meal on the flight home. The EU regulations state refreshments and meals appropriate to the time of day should be provided in delays. However I don't think it states this must be in the terminal. It may be a case of it was easier, and quicker in terms of the whole delay, for Thomson to arrange this on the aircraft rather than in the terminal.

However, by all means write regarding the lack of refreshments during the delay in the terminal, find out if €10 vouchers were given out and why you didn't get one.

Regarding the emergency landing. At the time, the crews workload would have been very high. Their prime concern was getting the aircraft back on the ground safely. Unfortunately informing passengers of the situation is way down the list of priorities. I know it doesn't make it any better for the passengers, but thats the way it is.

While it was highly unusual, even distressing for the passengers, I assure you it would have been fairly routine for the pilots, cabin crew, air traffic controllers etc. They train for situations like this and have set procedures. Just because it is an 'emergency' and the fire engines were on the runway, doesn't mean you were about to fall out the sky or burst into a fire ball. These procedures are there for safety. There is a saying in the aviation world "Better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground."

Information in delay situations can often be scarce, especially in foreign airports where agents may not be getting much information from the airline back in the UK. Your aircraft had unexpectedly turned back to a foreign airport; Thomson probably didn't know too much themselves until the plane had been inspected etc.

By all means write to Thomson though if you feel strongly about it. I wouldn't expect a full detailed analysis of the fault with the aircraft in reply, but it is worth writing to see what they do say. In terms of complaints and compensation, EU regs etc, the only one you seem to have is the lack of refrshments during the 5 hour delay.