This is a tad unsettling..my daughter's plane is on the tarmac with hydraulic brake problems

[rainbow4321]

The airline is trying to "fix" the problem so they can take off. Um...HOW will they know if the brakes are "fixed" enough??? I'm thinking UNloading the passengers who are on the plane and putting them on ANOTHER plane would come be a safer option instead of finding out in a few hours when the plane tries to land whether or not the fixing attempt actually worked!

[Wapsie B]

1. I agree. Let the mechanics take it and fix it then let a pilot fly it empty

before letting it fly with passengers. Hope your daughter gets safely to her destination.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Don't worry. The plane will not fly unless it is safe.

The mechanics will not sign it off, and the pilots will not accept it, unless it is properly repaired or otherwise approved for flight. More often than not these last-minute repairs involve nothing more serious than a caution light coming on in the cockpit, and the mechanics have to check both the light and the system. A lot of times it's just the light. Also, modern airplanes are required to have multiple redundant systems such that even if one fails there is a back-up. The FAA will not allow a plane to fly at all if certain systems, or parts of systems, are inoperative. There's also a thing called a Minimum Equipment List that says what can and can't be inoperative for flight, but even then there has to be some kind of check or procedure before the plane can take off. This is pretty routine, actually. It will be fine.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

3. The REAL question is,

how many hours will those poor passengers be forced to sit there without the option of getting off the plane?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. If they are still at the gate they will let them off as soon as they decide

to bring in another airplane if they can't fix the first one right away. It's really when the airplane is off the gate that things can get delayed because then they have to find an open gate and come back, and at busy airports this can take awhile. But if there are mechanics working on it now, it's at the gate, so there won't be any problem letting them off if they have to.

[rainbow4321]

5. Update: Daughter called me 2 hours after the intial report

And said that the fix job had created more problems so they had just gotten the passengers off the plane and that she was in line to get reassigned to another flight.
My concern at the time she initially called was how the airlines would know that their fix job would withstand the plane landing and trying to stop when they reached the runway at her destination.
Sorry to get on here and vent intially but it was kinda alarming that to think they were possibly doing patch work with a planeful of people in order to get off the ground.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. They wouldn't have done a "patchwork" job.

That would have been both illegal and unsafe. Any repair would have had to be sufficient to stop the aircraft on landing or it would not have been legal.

[lost-in-nj]

7. I don't think they will do a botched job

my plane was delayed for 3 hours in Fl. when they noticed an EMERGENCY exit sign no bigger than a doller bill was missing..... that is a no go to the FAA they had to fly it to Ft. Myers from Disney..... guess they didn't think about driving it....


sounds like the airline did the right thing for once...


lost