A flight delay in thunderstorm season

Typhoon "Plum Blossom" came and walked around the southeast coast of China

My circle of friends wailed and suffered terribly from the typhoon. It's better for some flights to be cancelled directly, but for those flights that have not been cancelled, and those flights that have not been completed in the end to go to alternate, return, and so on, there are endless situations. And every summer, it seems to have become the daily life of civil aviation people.

The thunderstorm season is also the peak season, and the popular point is the summer transportation period. Before 2020, every July, August and September, we are always tortured by the weather. This year, affected by the epidemic, I haven't heard of any large-scale flight delays caused by thunderstorms, because there are no "large-scale flights".

In the thunderstorm season in the past years, all kinds of strange delays will be encountered, and all kinds of unexpected situations will not be new. I still remember this time:

One year, in the thunderstorm season, the flight was delayed, and the APU of the plane still failed. Our plane was parked in a remote slot without an air conditioner. The stuffy cabin was like an oven. Throw a piece of ice in the aisle and it would melt away instantly. At that time, we received the notice of flow control, and the whole group was determined to die.

Almost all passengers, from elegant business men to beautiful women, from 70 to 17 years old, are calling us liars, saying that we cheated them on the plane to get their salaries, and that we didn't turn on the air conditioner to save money - in fact, as long as the plane doesn't take off, we don't have any money; As for saving money, it is nonsense. The captain begged his grandfather to sue his grandmother in the cockpit, asking for help: our plane's APU failed and there was no air conditioner. Can we go first?

Fortunately, the flow control lasted only two hours, but everyone in the cabin was already sweating, and the temperature outside was 35 degrees. Those who got on the plane wearing a full suit had already taken off their coats, their shirts were all wet, and our clothes had already adhered to our skin. It was so uncomfortable.

Why should an airplane in this situation be used for actual flight? In fact, if there is no delay, when passengers have boarded the plane, the door of the airplane is closed, and the external power car of the airplane is removed, the engine will be started, and the air conditioner will return to normal immediately after receiving the message that can be released. The power supply will be cut off for only a few minutes, but in the case of delay, everything will become unknown.

We opened the hatch door of the back cabin and pulled on the protective belt. The passengers took turns to come here for ventilation. Although it was hot and humid outside, it was good to have a mouthful of fresh air. The narrow kitchen was full of passengers. We had to send tea and water to the passengers, but we were worried that some passengers might fall down accidentally and get busy.

The aisle of the plane was also full of people. We went to the cabin for a walk and were ridiculed. We had to apologize with a smile.

The plane finally took off. After two hours of fighting, the passengers were already too hot to blame us. The air conditioner was normal and the cold air was blowing. Several of us took mineral water to inspect the cabin. As long as the passengers were still awake, we apologized one by one and said sorry. Today it was really.... The passengers waved their hands and said they knew we could do nothing, even if they wanted to complain, It will also explain that it has nothing to do with your crew.

It has to be said that we all know that the Shanghai route is not easy to fly, but most passengers will understand any problems encountered on the flights departing from Shanghai as long as they can explain the situation clearly.

Those passengers who blamed us just now took off their arms and ran to the kitchen to chat with us. They asked carefully why the situation just happened on the ground and how to choose a ticket to avoid it - of course, it is almost impossible to encounter APU failure now.

Some passengers even ran behind and apologized to our steward, saying they were sorry. They were excited on the ground just now, but it really had nothing to do with your steward. I shouldn't blame you indiscriminately.

We were also very moved. We stood in the kitchen room and apologized to the passengers. It was really interesting to think about this picture.

Looking back on those years, every summer was like a nightmare. In recent years, there was no such terrible delay. What impressed me most was a flight in July 2019:

It was originally planned to take off at 9 p.m. on the 28th, but it was delayed until 2:11 a.m., unfortunately, they all flew to a place only 100 kilometers away from their destination. The weather in Beijing was not ideal, so they turned around and flew back to Shanghai. This return flight does not matter. Due to the shortage of seats at Hongqiao Airport, the plane can only make an alternate landing in Pudong at 4:59 a.m., and passengers are arranged to get off the plane for a rest. At 11:13 a.m. on the 29th, MU533Y, who was responsible for making up the shift, took off from Pudong and left for Beijing again. Then, due to the weather, the flight returned to the origin Hongqiao Airport at 2:26 p.m.

In short, the flight took off five hours late and failed to fly twice. After 12 hours, it fell back to the origin again. It must have left a shadow in the minds of the crew and passengers.

In the past years, we had to "control the flow" when encountering thunderstorms. At present, there is not so much flow. According to the flight standard data, today, the original plan for domestic flights was 13633 flights, and 7363 flights were canceled, more than half of them.

In any case, our civil aviation will continue to be strong as always, just like each of us.

So, what about you?