United Airlines operates an “Island Hopper” service from Honolulu to Guam, calling on five airports in the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. When death tragically occurs onboard, Island Hopper operations become more complicated.
Passenger Death On United Airlines Island Hopper – How United Handled It
Three times per week, a United 737-800 operating as UA154 takes off from Honolulu just as the sun begins to rise, making five stops enroute to Guam:
- Majuro (MAJ)
- Kwajalein (KWA)
- Kosrae (KSA)
- Pohnpei (PNI)
- Chuuk (TKK)
I’ve reviewed the flight, which I took many years ago, here.
> Read More: Fond Memories Of United Airlines’ Island Hopper
The Kwajalein segment lands at Bucholz Army Airfield, a WWII-era Japanese military facility (later taken by American forces in 1944). Being an active military base owned by the US military, when landing on the Kwajalein Atolls passengers are prohibited from leaving the aircraft without permission and also prohibited from taking photos or videos of the island.
On February 25, UA154 took off from Kwajalein and landed in Kosrae on schedule. But on the ground in Korsae tragedy struck.
A FlyerTalk member who was on the flight posted this account:
I was on the flight 154 on Feb 24/25.
A pax died on the plane in KSA while waiting to depart for PNI.
After an hour of trying to save him there was initially some concern about having the minimum required medical equipment to continue the flight. That took some time to figure out and that is the story the captain stuck with til the end.
I suspect there was also some concern that the pilots would time out at PNI or TKK if we continued and there was any kind of delay. So dispatch made the decision to have us fly direct KSA-GUM because I assume there are more hotels and infrastructure to accommodate all the pax who were not heading to GUM.
They gave all those pax hotel vouchers at the Westin and shuttled them on a bus and ran a special “mini hopper” on Feb 26 departed GUM at 8:00 am GUM-PNI-TKK-GUM so might need to search for that flight. It was a 3xxx flight number.
Complicating matters was there was an island-wide power outage in KSA from an utility pole that fell earlier in the day so there were no lights or AC in the KSA terminal.
We ended up arriving about 3 hours late (spent about five hours on the plane in KSA) because they also had trouble with dispatch figuring out if they could load enough fuel to get us to GUM given KSA’s short runway and supposedly full/heavy plane (must have been cargo because there were lots of empty seats). Once that was figured out we needed to top off the fuel tanks and there seems to be some complicated process where a fire truck had to come and be on standby while the plane was being fueled by the onboard mechanic.
I also suspect an error was discovered at the last minute on the dispatch paperwork because we left the terminal, but were held at the runway threshold for over 30 minutes while the flight attendants recounted the amount of pax onboard a couple times. The captain never announced what was going on, but by that point everyone was over the whole ordeal and just wanted it to end. Me included.
The island hopper is brutal, even for an avgeek like myself sitting in business class. Now Iʻm trying to figure out if I should attempt to finish it w/ the shortened flight on Wed or make another attempt on flt 154. I think Iʻm crazy that Iʻm leaning towards the latter!
The Island Hopper travels with four pilots onboard and a mechanic. Even so, unexpected incidents like death onboard can throw the whole operation in to disarray.
CONCLUSION
United’s “Island Hopper” is a lifeline to Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. But flying a 737-800 across the Pacific is a tenuous endeavor and complications force improvisation. Passengers on UA154 on February 25th experienced a very different type of island hopper.
That’s interesting. The captain has his reasons (technical and/or legal) to wanting to just fly direct and get the deceased to the destination ASAP but it seems it would have been easier to just stow the deceased as cargo and carry on rather than complicate matters by needing to add fuel and change the itinerary. I’m also wondering if it would have been possible to leave the deceased on the island and pick up on the return round trip…
In order for a body to be carried as cargo, it has to be properly prepared for transport by a funeral home and placed in a proper container. This would only come after a death certificate was issued. None of that would happen quickly in a big city, much less a remote island.
Did I miss something or is there no mention of the poor soul who lost his life. Was he left on the plane and continued to destination ?
No mention of the death in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser nor Guam Pacific Daily News. A Google search only mentions this particular posting. Couldn’t find a press release from United, either.
Lester Holts (NBC Evening News) loves these type of stories; surprised he hasn’t picked up on it.
It definitely happened. I was on the flight in 8F, and the pax who fell ill was in 11F or 12F. When the ambulance arrived, the paramedics pronounced the person dead and removed them from the flight. The whole thing happened on the ground at KSA.
Unless things have changed in since 2019, the island hopper operates with 2 pilots. Crew change at Majuro. Originating crew flies either HNL-MAJ or GUM-MAJ with the stops. Continues with fresh crew MAJ-GUM or MAJ-HNL.
we flew UA154 years back, on a fare deal HNL-HKG-YYZ.
Deplaned in KWI in order, and while in line for military inspection we timidly pointed to our plane with our boarding passes saying we were civilians who just wanted to get a passport stamp.
Upon landing in MAJ there was an airspeed disagree, so the onboard mechanic had to troubleshoot. He installed the spare from the cargo hold or the airport, however it would not pass the testing. Acter feeding us the J meals meant for a later segment, they let us deplane in MAJ.
When we re-boarded, crew requested a waiver of FAA duty day regulations which was denied. Later they had all the KSA passengers deplane. The captain announced they would bypass the other stops and go to GUM.
Everyone cheered .. except me. Much to the crew, other pax, and my family’s dismay, I grabbed our carry on bags and deplaned. I paid for an adventure and did not want to be shorted…. I had heard them taking to the gate agent about a possible rescue or ferry flight for the KSA pax and I wanted in on that action.
The scowl on my wife’s face as we left our plane in MAJ meant she not only disagreed with my judgment call and was stranding our family in the middle of nowhere. She was almost in tears. Now based on what happened later she says it was our best and most memorable trip ever.
UA was stuck giving shared apartment housing to most due to sparse accomodations in MAJ. I had already reserved a hotel at first sign of failure. The room was horrible, barracks style. I got upgraded to the free standing oceanfront bungalo after convincing the front desk that their VIP clients — the United pillots — were in the air on tbe way to Guam and UA hadn’t cancelled.
We then got a free night in GUM. Since we could then only arrive in HKG two days late, UA reaccommodated us on to AC NRT-YYZ. UA gave a full refund due to trip in vain.