Does that mean all of the pax are stuck inside of the planes and can't get out. Or is it that all of the people and crew are just waiting inside of the airport?

 

It depends...if you know early enough, you simply don't board. But if the airplane has already pushed off the gate, there may be nowhere for it to go if the gate is already occupied by another airplane.

 

Fastest way to get a headache

 

LOL at the Air China comment. Of course.

 

We called out on time at 759 this evening on our way to cleveland. Sat at the gate until 9pm, finally pushed. Then proceeded to taxi until ELEVEN THIRTY.

3.5 hours from door closed to wheels up

No idea what happened, i know there was a runway change involved and it POURED for a good amount of time with CBs in the area.

There was a line that ran from the departure end of 4L up Kilo and bending all the way down to the departure end of 13L.
Then another line started where B veers off and becomes P to the departure end of 13L.
Then ANOTHER line starting at N and going all the way down Q to the departure end of 13L.

Get your charts out if you don't know it, it's like SIX MILES of airplanes.

Good times, I think we were 100+ in line at the worst time.

Oh, and when we took off, there were still airplanes all the way down 13L, and on P and Q. So probably another 100+....LOOONG night in JFK.

What would've made things worse is that we almost had to go back to the gate because of an unruly passenger AND because of min fuel (we called dispatch).

Why dispatch thought 600 lbs of taxi fuel would do it is beyond me, but hey..they probably get paid more than the FOs.

 

hehe, no kidding. I saw an air china pull onto 28r in SFO once when they were told to hold short. caused a bunch of go arounds.

 

We did the VOR 13L down to mins before they switched the runway. While we were waiting for a gate...over 2 hours...I saw an AA heavy (dont know whether it was a 767 or a A300) land on 4R and all the trucks surrounded it. I dont know what happened but it tied up the runway change for awhile. Departures were stopped at one point for about 45min. It was not a good day to be in JFK. We made over 4 hours though.

 

I bet you break guarantee now.

 

Yeah, man, it's terrible. I'm sure you've seen this old video before of a CNN report on that one Air China 981 JFK ATC recording:

YouTube - ca981 cnn airchina

 

To be fair... that controller was not saying things the way they should have been said to a foreign aircraft struggling with instructions.