An emergency two-bounce landing at Miami International Airport, with fire trucks waiting on the runway, has proven to be just the beginning of Andy and Francats’ two-day trip nightmare.
After the hard landing, the Deerfield Beach couple returned to the same boarding area and waited Friday evening. American Airlines told passengers they would get another plane from the maintenance hangar for a scheduled flight to Paris.
Just after 9pm, the couple boarded the plane.
They then received a series of six messages on their mobile phones over the next four hours.
Compassionate emails continued to push back departure times on Saturday. But “there is no reason for the delay,” Andy Katz said, provided by textbooks and onboard staff.
Around 1am, the captain came to the PA system and informed passengers that the plane was not ready for takeoff yet. There was a problem with the computer navigation system.
And the crew timed out and reached the maximum number of hours that they could legally work.
The passengers finally got off the plane. They hadn’t received their food on the plane yet, and had gotten a small bottle of water, the couple said.
Next destination: Miami Hotel
After walking to several counters at MIA, Katzes received a hotel voucher. Andy said he thought an employee of a US airline was not qualified because he lived in Broward County, so he had to fight to get it. The supervisor intervened. The couple received a meal voucher.
They checked in at the hotel Element Miami International Airport around 2am.
I then received 7 more emails from American Airlines. “At this point, the computer is just spitting things out,” Andy Katz said.
They were not given much time to rest. First of all, they had to call places in Europe. There we made a reservation to let you know of your later arrival.
And the elements had a strict noon check-out. The hotel had guests from Ultra Town, an electronic music festival in downtown Miami.
“Our team is actively reaching out to our clients and apologizing for their experience and the inconvenience caused by mechanical issues,” American Airlines spokesperson Amanda Maldonado wrote in a statement to the Miami Herald. “At American, customer safety is at the heart of every decision we make. We don’t want to disrupt our customers’ travel plans.
Maldonado said Americans are already offering miles to travelers as “good intentional gestures.”
Paris was beckoning
73-year-old Andy and Fran Katz were hoping to take a vacation from South Florida for a 14-day holiday to Paris. The couple had booked a nice hotel and a river cruise. Andy was a retired scientist and Fran was a special education teacher. She doesn’t lack patience.
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Things initially seemed well when American Airlines Flight 62 departed from MIA on a busy Friday night at Charles de Gale Airport. 787-800 remained at 7:30pm
About 30 minutes after flying through the Atlantic, it was still turning around at about 4,000 feet, but the captain informed passengers that the landing gear door would not close after takeoff.
The plane had to return to Mia. After the first landing, it bouncing back and then returned to the ground, three passengers told the Miami Herald. No one was injured.
“Everyone was fine,” Andy Katz said. “The captain was very professional in talking to us. He was very calm.”
The passengers applauded. “We were very relieved,” he said.
That was just the beginning of the travel saga.
I’m waiting more at Miami Airport
A day later, Katz returned to Mia. It was just after noon on Saturday.
They had lunch at the airport, with turkey BLT and orange juice for Andy, chicken sandwich and pineapple juice for flan.
They left the airport bar, but the urge to drink was strong. They each got two meal vouchers, but didn’t even cover the cost of one meal. Online menu reviews show that Katz ordered with a 20% tip and a 6% sales tax was just over $49. The American gave the couple $24 for a meal.
The couple’s flight was the third attempt at boarding and was scheduled for 6:30pm
This time the crew arrived one more time.
“When the person appeared, everyone applauded,” Katz recalls. “People were trying to be decent.”
They boarded. But the problem continued.
More issues with American Airlines planes
Almost an hour after they returned to the plane, the announcement came to the speaker and he said: “I’m sorry, but I can’t make the navigation computer work.”
Another passenger on board, Alejandra Karik, said he found them on the same plane they left hours ago due to computer issues. “Maintenance was called again,” said the 59-year-old doctor who lives in Tampa.
Andy Katz said “it’s confusing me with how to pull out a plane without being fully checked for a cross ocean flight.” “And they really didn’t have any information for us.”
Another passenger said that the flight attendant said the maintenance officer said he was trying to fix the same issue as the issue with the second plane last night.
The Federal Aviation Administration said: “American Airlines Flight 62 returned safely to Miami International Airport around 8:55pm on Friday, March 28, after crew members reported landing gear issues. However, that was the only report by the agency for the March 28-29 flight, said Rick Breitenfeldt.
Back at the gate, several more hours passed and passengers were worried as the plane was still on the runway.
Meanwhile, airline phone messages continued to come.
24 hours after the scheduled original departure, they were not allowed to change plans or request packages.
“I was told that once I left the plane I couldn’t access my bag,” Katz said.
Finally, that changed shortly before 10pm on a Saturday. They were thrown off the plane and said they could re-book and get their luggage. But they were also said in such cases, if the plane finally takes off, they would lose the opportunity to regain their seats.
Tampa doctor Karik went to bite and stretch his legs.
“I went back to the gate and found chaos and people screaming at the gate agents,” she said. “Gate agents did not provide information on whether flights would move or cancel,” about 10 Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputies appeared.
Throughout the ordeal of travel, “During this time, there have been several instances where I was worried about my personal safety,” she said. “The biggest issues were the lack of communication by US gate agents and the lack of preparation and monitoring from US maintenance.”
Katz decided he had enough. “This is tired,” Andy and Fran said.
They walked.
“At that point, we lost faith in American safety procedures,” he said.
Their plane was at Terminal E, so they had to help with the refund and then walk to Terminal D to see the agent to get their luggage. It took another hour to make the request.
They demanded that their packages be delivered to their home and took the Uber home.
Their belongings did not arrive until Tuesday after 3pm, nearly 72 hours after leaving MIA. They may have traveled their own.
After midnight on Saturday, the flight finally took off towards Paris.
After staying on the flight and finally reaching the French capital, Carrick said before leaving, “The captain announced that the computer would go without fixing as he could manually address the issue.”
