Flight delays suck. They always have and they always will.
1, 2, 3 hours of sitting around in an airport that you're very ready to leave is nothing but frustrating, at best.
What about delays that last days?
That's what 171 American Airlines passengers were forced to endure in Lima, Peru.
I'm talking about 3 straight days of delays.
[Monday, September 9th - 11:47pm]
Flight 988 was set to leave Lima for an easy 7-hour flight to Dallas-Fort Worth.
The bags were checked. The passengers were through customs. The people had boarded. The plane had taxied out onto the tarmac.
(Enter problem number 1...)
Then the intercom went out.
Considering it's the one piece of equipment that allows the flight attendants to communicate to the pilots, it's pretty important.
The maintenance crew figured out that a piece of equipment needed to be shipped in, so everyone was taken off the plane, sent to a hotel (that they didn't get to until 5:15am), and told to come back 24 hours later.
[Tuesday, September 10th - 11:47pm]
Flight 988 was all set to leave again.
The bags were checked. The passengers were through customs. The people had boarded. The plane had taxied out onto the tarmac.
(Enter problem number 2...)
Then a door and its emergency slide had a problem.
The maintenance crew was able to fix it quickly, sending the plane back out on the tarmac about an hour later.
Then they sat there. And sat there. And sat there some more.
After about an hour without movement, the pilot explained that paperwork issues and planned runway repairs were in there way of departure.
Everyone was sent back to hotels (which they got to at the reasonable hour of 4am...).
[Wednesday, September 11th - 10:15pm]
The flight crew showed up just 15 minutes before the planned departure.
(Enter problem number 3...)
There was a battery issue on the plane, but it was fixed after a minor delay.
Then things continued as normal.
The bags were checked. The passengers were through customs. The people had boarded. The plane had taxied out onto the tarmac.
(Enter problem number 4...)
Then there was an engine problem.
FINALLY American Airlines acknowledged that they needed to book the remaining 115 passengers that they hadn't already rebooked or who hadn't already rebooked themselves on other flights.
[Thursday, September 12th]
Everyone left Lima.
[Friday, September 13th]
Everyone arrived home after their simple 7-hour flight from Lima to Dallas-Fort Worth turned into a 5-day disaster
Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal