A LATAM Airbus A321 plane, full of passengers, many of them Argentines, was unusually delayed in terminal 2 of the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, in Santiago de Chile, for a reason as simple as it is fundamental: the pilot who commanded it was missing.
Flight LA 451 was scheduled to leave last Monday at 1:00 pm with destination Buenos Airesbut the flight commander warned a few minutes after that time, to the people waiting for him already seated in their seats, that unfortunately he would not be able to take off due to the expiry of the work hours of the crew.
While not an eventuality, but a ordinary reason -the objective fact that the crew in question would have exceeded working hours-, the company’s response was framed more in the field of the imponderable, which escapes the imperative of efficiency.
The group of pilot, co-pilot and flight attendants took charge of the plane – later than expected, which has already delayed boarding – while people settled into their seats and sorted out their carry-on bags. But the surprise came minutes later when the crew announced it he apologized and got off the flight.
With about 200 passengers ready to go, the takeoff started to get complicated. The departure time printed on the tickets became an extinct formality from then on. time passed no sign to get the plane to take off.
On board, as usually happens on any flight, there were families with children and elderly people. there were a few moments of tension and claims of passengers due to the airline’s lack of foresight. To ease the nerves and tiredness, the hostesses decided to serve glasses of water to anyone who wanted it.
Before the consultation of clarion Due to the uncertain picture of the situation on top of the aircraft, LATAM sources gave the following response: “It won’t go out without a pilot”. And they confirmed that it was “a crew delay”.
Only at 14:00, an hour after the scheduled departure time, did the new crew that would take over the service begin to board. However, the departure of the flight kept getting late without explanation.
Was it an exceptional case? Schedule violations usually occur in airlines, some more frequently than others. How could he say clarionLATAM would have had a bad run in recent days, with consequent damage to its customers.
The problem, according to the trend of these delays and the testimonies of the company’s employees, would be linked to the overload in the flight schedule of the crews of LATAM, which would result in this type of accident with uncertain takeoffs.
The explanation they gave to the passengers of several delayed flights was that these crews usually come from domestic services, with just enough time, and then have to cover international flights, with the bureaucracy and time in Migrations that this entails. The cost, therefore, is borne by the passengers.
LATAM CEO Roberto Alvo said a few weeks ago that the airline is looking for more efficiency on your budget -after the financial crisis that led it to close some offices in the region, including Argentina- and for this reason they have fired 40 percent of workers since the pandemic.
According to a ranking drawn up annually by the consulting firm Cirium, in 2022 LATAM had 86.3 percent punctuality and was in fourth place in Latin America, behind Azul, Sky Airlines and Copa Airlines.
Returning to the episode of flight 451, the new acting captain, already seated in command of the aircraft, apologized after the long wait and rehearsed a recommendation for passengers: “Relax and enjoy the flight”.
A few minutes later the take-off maneuvers began. finally the plane left at 2.48pm bound for Buenos Aires. The mystery never revealed was why, although the airline was able to foresee that the flight would be delayed under these conditions, it had not reacted to avoid it.
The answers, however, were later, such as asking passengers, at the time of boarding, to document and send the permitted hand baggage to the hold. That was the topic the flight was fullas if the tickets only allowed small suitcases to be brought into the cabin if the plane was empty.
But the time for unanswered questions was beginning to pass. The LATAM pilot accelerated to altitude a shorten times, however already passed. What was planned as a two hour flight was done in an hour and a half, to top it off the absurdity of the anecdote: The passengers had spent more time inside the plane stranded on the ground than later in the air.
Santiago de Chile. Special
PS
Source: Clarin
