Air J flight grounded leaving passengers stranded

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Air J flight grounded leaving passengers stranded
Friday, 27 June 2008
The problems at Air Jamaica appear to have spread to critical areas of the airline's operations and have started to impact on passengers.

There were reports Thursday night that scores of passengers were stranded at the Norman Manley International Airport after a plane which was about to take off had to turn back.

One irate passenger who called RJR News said the pilot had to terminate the flight as the plane needed additional maintenance.

"We were scheduled to board and depart flight 041 at 3.30pm, we started boarding sometime after 5 o'clock ... after boarding we sat on the plane for about 2½ hours. The plane eventually started to taxi off but less than a minute later, the pilot announced that he had to go back to the gate. We returned to the gate and he said that maintenance would be doing something on the plane which would take half an hour," he said.

The passenger further complained that the passengers had to disembark and wait several hours at the airport without receiving word from airline officials on the status of their flight.

"We sat there for another 45 minutes and no representative from the airline approached us to tell us what was happening," said the irate passenger.

RJR News Thursday night checked Air Jamaica's web site which confirmed that the flight which was scheduled to leave at 3.50pm for Baltimore had not departed.

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Series of blunders with Air J – Davies

Series of blunders with Air J – Davies
Friday, 27 June 2008
Former Minister of Finance Dr. Omar Davies has harshly criticised the Bruce Golding administration for what he said has been a series of blunders in its management of Air Jamaica.

Dr. Davies, who had direct responsibility for Air Jamaica during his tenure as Finance Minister, did not mince words as he assessed the Government's handling of the airline.

Speaking on RJR current affairs discussion programme Beyond the Headlines on Thursday, Dr. Davies said several hasty decisions had been made regarding Air Jamaica's operations including the change to the lease agreement for its fleet of aircraft.

According to Dr. Davies, firing the airline's Board will not make a difference as there is a high level of political interference in its daily operations.

"One of the worst things to happen is to negotiate from the absolute position of weakness and this is what they're going to be doing.

(This is) not a criticism of Senator Wehby and probably it's just newness to these things, but you can't dictate the pace of negotiations unless you're going to give it away ... it's really a series of blunders," he said.

More light could be shed on the reported dismissal of Air Jamaica's Directors Friday when Minister Without Portfolio in the Ministry of Finance Senator Don Wehby returns to the island.

During Wednesday's weekly post Cabinet press briefing, Information Minister Olivia "Babsy" Grange said Senator Wehby will make a statement on the issue.

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Mechanical difficulties blamed for Air J flight fiasco


Friday, 27 June 2008
Mechanical difficulties have caused passengers on two Air Jamaica flights to suffer extended delays.

Scores of Air Jamaica passengers were left stranded on the tarmac Thursday and again Friday morning after boarding flights out of Norman Manley International.

Many of the passengers who were booked on Friday morning's flight have been at the airport since Thursday afternoon.

One passenger who has been in contact with our news centre since Thursday night said no real explanation has been given as to why Friday morning's flight is still waiting at the gate.

The passenger said weary passengers on flight 041 had to sleep on the floor and on benches in the airport Thursday night.

He said they waited for hours to hear the fate of their flight only to be told the same thing over and over...that mechanical difficulties had grounded the flight temporarily.

The passenger said when asked about accommodations for the night and the rescheduling of their flight to New York, airline personnel had few answers.

He said they were later told that they would be boarding flight 015 at 7 o'clock Friday morning for a 7:30 departure.

But their relief that the waiting was over was premature as once again they were forced to wait.

The plane eventually started to taxi down the runway, but never made it off the ground.

Passengers were told by the pilot that the plane could not take off as more mechanical problems were being experienced.

When our news centre checked the schedule on the airline's website at midday Friday flight 015 was still listed as ‘NOT DEPARTED'.

In the meantime, calls to the airline's passenger reservations line confirmed that the original Air Jamaica flight 041 to Baltimore did not actually leave Jamaica until 5:50 Friday morning.

This is 12 hours after its scheduled departure of 3:50 Thursday afternoon.

That flight arrived in Baltimore just after 10 o'clock Friday morning.

The reservations desk also confirmed that flight 015 to JFK which was scheduled to depart the Norman Manley International Airport Friday morning at 7:30, had to turn back because of mechanical problems.

The last deadline for departure of that flight was 10:45 Friday morning.

Up to newstime, a promised official statement on the situation was yet to come from the Airline's management.