A sad situation at Washington Dulles International Airport with plenty of blame to go around. A lack of communication leading up to a flight cancellation on Royal Air Maroc incited a passenger revolt that prompted gate agents to flee the gate area in fear for their safety.
After Royal Air Maroc Flight Cancellation At Washington Dulles, Passenger Mutiny Scares Away Ground Staff
Bad weather and Air Traffic Control understaffing led to an operational mess for many airlines over the weekend at Washington Dulles (IAD), even small ones like Royal Air Maroc with just one flight per day (five days per week). The Moroccan carrier’s 787 Dreamliner service to Casablanca (CMN) faced a severe delay.
Hours passed. Passenger waited. But gate agents or the ground staff failed to provide any updates on the status of the flight. Finally–many hours later–gate agents finally made an announcement that the flight was canceled.
Let’s pause here. On the one hand, what is a gate agent supposed to say when there is no update? I doubt the gate agents had any information they were withholding just to spite passengers or because they were lazy. On the other hand, an update that there is no update is still an update. Constant communication is key to keeping passengers calm and the lack of any update whatsoever understandably put passengers in a foul mood.
That said, no matter how angry the passengers were there is no excuse for the “Arab Spring” that followed (just a joke, folks). I mean the revolt that followed. Screaming and yelling and standing on the podium and threatening the gate agents…it is no wonder the ground staff reportedly took off in fear for their safety.
View this post on Instagram
A passenger explained:
“Royal Air Maroc flight was supposed to depart at 9:50 pm last night. Due to all of the issues with flights being grounded, they never updated us passengers until this moment. There are hundreds of women and children sleeping on the floor. They refuse to give food or hotel vouchers and the employees packed up and left us with no answers. We just want answers.”
Of course, it is reasonable that passengers want answers. In fact, they are entitled to them. This is a huge failing on the part of Royal Air Maroc. But the answer is not to threaten gate agents who do not even appear empowered to do anything at all.
CONCLUSION
Bad weather and poor air traffic control staffing led to many flight delays and cancellations, including the Royal Air Maroc flight from Washington to Casablanca on Sunday night. Unfortunately, ground staff failed to keep passengers informed and passengers responded with a mutiny of their own that only made the matter worse.
(image: @helahollahollerr // H/T: View From The Wing)
This article is so sad…
The weather across DC area were perfectly clear and it wasn’t a staffing issue that caused the operational meltdown on Sunday June 25. A quick google search would’ve told you that the issue was caused by an equipment failure at Potomac ATC. That lead to a ground stop for all 3 WAS airports. So stop spreading misinformation around. Blaming weather and staffing when real problem is something else is just plain lazy.
Also, there were plenty of information pilots/agents could’ve given to passengers. Many people on other flights were promptly updated about the issues on that day. Some people are just not as competent or care as much about passengers as others. Stop making excuses for incompetent/lazy agents that doesn’t care to make an effort to communicate.
It was just not just the equipment failure, but a ripple effect from a NE staff shortage that clogged traffic across the Eastern Seaboard.
@Tim My thoughts exactly. The blogger / air enthusiast made and titled this article to be as click-baity as possible. He could have told the whole truth and stood up for what’s right and wrong but instead chose not to. Not even half way through the “article” you can tell this isn’t the whole story.
Blah, blah. You think the ATC personnel shortage did not contribute to this delay? I have waterfront property in Phoenix to sell you.
Matt, I’m pretty sure he is claiming the opposite. Hell, even my CLT flight had issues that caused me to get in 2 hours late on sunday. We had no weather at all. The weather, for the most part, was pretty clear across the east coast Sunday.
Scattered T-storms around Newark caused a flow control program that greatly limited arrivals and departures, causing a huge bottleneck.
“Scattered T-storms” shouldn’t be the cause of a major operational bottleneck. I’ve had far less delays with the whole southeast experiencing thunderstorms. Also, one of the only two times I had my flight cancelled was out of newark after alleged “Scattered T-storms”. I’m not sure I understand why the NYC airports can’t handle traffic better. Note, that flight was cancelled (EWR to CLT) and from 5pm to midnight was perfectly clear. This was prior to the pandemic.
For that matter, the NE region had more rain overall on Saturday.
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/maps/radar/
Isn’t that Butleigs job as usual he is no where to be found
No where to be found? The Secretary of Transportation is expected to to appear @ every flight delay?
Tell me you’ve never worked for an airline without telling me you’ve never worked for an airline. Weather can be great in one area, but bad weather from other incoming and outbound locations can cause bottlenecks for DAYS. The storm cell that hit the east coast was HUGE and deadly. It had spawned tornados killed as it worked it’s way across the US. I’m sure wherever you were may have been sunny with a chance of glitter and rainbows, but many parts of the Atlantic seaboard were a complete shit show. Delays and cancellations are like dominos, and sometimes are a compilation of multiple causes.
Exactly right.
I understand the frustration especially when ground staff do not give proper updates and they’re left in the dust as I’ve had my fair share oof weather-related cancellations/delays. However, doing this is completely unacceptable.
This brings me to the notion of the US needing our version of EU/UK 261. This would stop unruly passengers from going to the extreme when such events occur.
what does ” toon took off in fear for their safety.” mean?
Do you know if the flight even came in from Casablanca? Was the airplane diverted elsewhere? Was it even there?
RAM operates this flight five times weekly using a 787-8 and -9 (randomly) mixed. It is a turnaround on the days it operates so did come in earlier in the evening. I take this flight occasionally and it normally leaves Casa late afternoon and returns from IAD in the late evening.
Most of the agents are simply contracted handling agents with usually one station manager overseeing things. If he/she was hiding in the office it’s no wonder the contracted agents just walked away.
Yes – i know and i’ve flown it several times too. It’s usually very convenient. I just dont understand – if the plane was there, why couldnt it eventually leave, even if delayed? My understanding is that crew isnt on duty until they actually fly the plane out? couldnt they just reschedule til the next day? The plane needs to get back to Casablanca anyway. Did they just eventually choose to leave with it empty, stranding all the customers? That wouldnt make sense.
Sorry, didn’t understand.
I wonder as well what the final result was… but maybe they flew the next morning? A daytime flight to Casa is easily done (they offer one from New York) so I imagine that’s what they just reverted to.
Proof reading before hitting Enter is not a thing anymore. Errors like this appear everywhere! Yes, it tees me off to no end.
I concur wholeheartedly
That one man has incredible leadership skills. A modern-day George Washington!
Mutiny for ships, HiJack for aviation…
I find ridiculous the lack of information when there is a flight delay. How many times we just sit inside the plane at the gate or at the tarmac and you hear nothing from anyone. Totally agree that an update that there is no update is better than nothing but all you see are lazy airline personnel sitting their hands doing nothing. I once waited almost an hour for a stupid catering that never came for a 90 minute flight. The entire delay between us waiting for the catering and then being delayed to take off because we went to the end of the line was more than the flight duration. Common sense is non existent at airlines. They do everything by the book.
Now, for air traffic control. This has been a nightmare for many years and FAA does absolutely nothing. How many times we hear the blame on delays due to air traffic control. What are we doing to improve this?
AI robotic controllers
An update is always possible. THey just choose (who? Operations management? ) not to bother relaying the information. I had my flight pulled up 30 minutes from it’s original delay time and we were supposed to be boarding (even the gate had boards in “1 minute”) and the plane still wasn’t at the gate. That I take issue with in 2023. There is no reason any airline, especially given the amount of money they were *GIVEN* to still be this dysfunctional. They had plenty of time during the pandemic to upgrade processes when flights were slow. There is no excuse anymore.
He is the captain now.
Many people are so disrespectful these days. We have lost our ability to endure difficulty and instead demand instant gratification. What good does raising your voice do to get you on a flight? Use your phone to contact RAM instead of making a scene. So dumb.
Take that racist line about an Arab spring out of this article. It’s stupid and hurtful.
Not sure what is racist about it…you’ll have to explain.
hehe
What never ceases to amaze me is that airlines – including US carriers – are happy to take people’s money and provide service from non-hub stations, yet between not having contingency plans in place and inadequate staff training/resources, they seem content to let people rot when situations like this happen.
All this said, nothing justifies the pax behavior exhibited here. I was struck at the fact that in this day and age, instead of helping de-escalate the situation, most of the other pax were busy whipping out their cellphones to take video they can post on social media. AI is only going to make things worse. Ain’t technology with no thought to the implications on society before unleashing it grand??
I’m guessing most of the passengers were not from Iowa.
Another POS article in a long line of uninformed POS articles from this website. Clickbate garbage. I dispise particularly this author Matt Klint. What a terrible human being. Just try and be better for Goodness sake.
Thanks for your click Willy. It’s spelled “clickbait.”
I’m sure some people here clickbate.
If you hate the content so much, why are you here?
What would be your title and content? “Moroccans Dance Gleefully To Justin Bieber While Celebrating A Cancellation on Royal Air Maroc?”
I hope everyone who chooses to clickbate does it in the privacy of their own home or hotel room.
The infrastructure czar Pete Butt judge and the f’d up corrupt Biden admin is to blame and the dumb dems that elected them.
I understand that passengers shouldn’t act that way. But the frustration with RAM is not new. RAM has a long history of not communicating with passengers in this kind of situations all over the world. And of they communicated after hours of delay, they are so rude and arrogant. Passengers have children and have errands waiting for them on their destination; sometimes funerals are been delayed waiting for that passenger to arrive. The authorities should force RAM to communicate promptly or warn them at least.
Passengers should not threaten gate agents. That said, if they had all slunk away with no complaint, no meals, and no hotel, we’d never know about the terrible service they received. Sometimes making a fuss is the only way to get attention, as Matthews post shows.
The Arab spring line was unnecessary and not funny. The writer knows as much as he tried to justify it with a ‘j/k’.