cathay passengers held 11 hours on-board

[taipeiflyer]

can't find a link, but it was on the taiwan news yesterday that a recent flight between taipei and hong kong was diverted to guangzhou. passengers were kept on-board for 11 hours. i am not sure why they were kept on board so long. unfortunately, this is becoming a regular occurrence with cathay. earlier in the year, passengers at sfo were kept on-board for several hours before being allowed to de-plane.

[kkjay77]

Maybe because most of the pax were Taiwanese and the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan isn't the best in the world?

[matt_will_fix_it]

Here is a news article about the incident:

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business...ay-Pacific.htm

From the article the passengers were allowed into the terminal, but its still a long delay nonetheless. Maybe it would be quicker for them to do the border crossing into HK, but then there would be an issue of not having a visa for China...

All passengers, most of them Taiwan nationals, were allowed to get off the plane to wait inside the Baiyun terminal. Their plane took off from Guangzhou at 6 p.m. and landed in Hong Kong an hour later.

[flyguy]

understand then the whole Pearl delta was blanketed in fog even macau and shenzhen airports - perhaps the pilots of this CX flight should have turned back to taipei as its a fairly short flight and am sure the plane would have enough fuel incl reserves.

[Singapore_Air]

Some passengers complained about the long wait that forced them to miss the flights for their next leg of journey. Others complained about the food and refreshments provided during the wait. Executives of Cathay Pacific Airways explained that they needed to send a new crew to take over the flight so that the original team of crew members would not be worn out by the diversion flight. The refueling operation and waiting for its turn at the busy airport were other factors causing the delay, they said.

(c) 2008 The China Post. All Rights Reserved

[Singapore_Air]

Also there are reports of a CX flight LAXHKG diverting to CAN and passengers not being let off the plane for 8 hours after a 15 hour journey.

[taipeiflyer]

thanks for the links everyone... the news station had said they were kept on-board the entire time... i am glad that they were at least allowed to wait at the gate inside the terminal.

[huaiwei]

Maybe because most of the pax were Taiwanese and the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan isn't the best in the world?

So direct cross-straits flights already exist!