Longest time spent on the tarmac

[exceladdict]

Not long, but coughulatively, this one hurt. Faulty APU on an QF A380 QF95 MEL-LAX saw us spend about an extra hour on the plane before take-off and the same again at LAX. Throw in some unfavourable winds and we were pushing 16 hours total time in the small upper deck Y cabin with two separate families of screaming toddlers. First time I felt claustrophobic in my life.

Also spent about an hour on the tarmac at BDL after being diverted from JFK, which was experiencing strong winds - this was after a 45 minute holding pattern at JFK for a flight that was already 2 hours late; that I was only on due to other flight cancellations. If I wasn't in F - I would have been very upset.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yeah, what's with that!

Military exercises! (And sometimes bad weather, but the former is much more common than the latter). All Chinese airspace is prone to delays, but the HKG-PVG more so (much more so) than others.

 

[Boca68]

Got stuck on the tarmac at MAO on a GRU-MAO-BOG flight in 2006. It was a tarmac boarding. Flying with Virag, who went bust about a week later, which made for some issues with the return leg.

Plane was 3/4 full and my lack of portuguese made the annoucement useless. Asked the FA, found out we were waiting for some passengers on a late connection. Should only be 15 minutes, I was informed. Hope so, as it was as sticky as hell. Aircon was not great as the doorways were open. Probably 35C and 95% humidity. Well, about 3 hours later they turned up. Turns out it was the Brazilian U-17 National Basketball Team heading to the South American Championships in Colombia.

So, had the pleasure of sitting next to 6' 8" 17 y-o for the next few hours in Y. Cramped is the word that comes to mind.

 

[travelislife]

5+ hours on Jetstar incredibly hung over in Sydney. SYD-MEL was a near 7 hour ordeal. On the plane, then had to wait for someone's bags to be offloaded. Taxied out and joined the queue. Storm rolls in. Runways closed. Once the runways reopen pilot comes over and says we are below minimum fuel to make it to MEL. Loose our take off slot, taxi back to hate. Refuel. Join back of queue again with a massive backlog of flights from the closure. It was hell.

 

[k_sheep]

I'm sure I've had longer, but the 45 ish minutes spent on the ground at BME felt like the longest time in the world. DJ flight on AFL grand final day, 40+ degrees, no air con, and near-hysterical cabin crew refusing to let anyone off the plane until someone confessed to vandalising the toilets.

Police came and told the crew to stop being idiots and get everyone off the plane.

 

[medhead]

1970s, 7 or 8 hours in a QF 747 on the tarmac at MEL. Refuellers strike. Watched an LH 747 land and take off again out the window.

 

[donovan301]

Well, my best (worst really) was about 2 years ago SIN to MNL to KLO
After an epic 20 hours delay at Changi my flight landed in much turmoil at MNL....in the midst of the biggest typhoon of the season.

Not bad in the scheme of things, but as we touched down the Lightning started.....

Ended up parked up in a queue of 20 something craft, 6 Hours on the runway from 3am onwards till 9am.

Plane was generally buffeted by the rains and winds, saw several close lightning strikes on the surrounding ground nearby.

Finally they allowed ground crew back on the tarmac to start clearing the backlog,

To make for the perfect day , the cause and effect flow on meant that after 6 cancelled connecting flights that day I did not leave Mnl until about 9ish pm that night.

Finally got to Kalibo KLO, instead of Caticlan MPH and ended up spending an hour plus on a bus and ferry to Boracay...checked in at Midnight.

Nice part was my partner had caught earlier far more consumer friendly flights and had a nice bottle of Bombay Amber to quell my weary psyche.
Twas an immensely long day indeed.

Boracay not bad, like Kuta 20 years ago.
Subnote: (prefer Amed, Bali though over all) Like Kuta a million years ago ;-) Great diving

 

[Virgin Bart]

5+ hours on Jetstar incredibly hung over in Sydney. SYD-MEL was a near 7 hour ordeal..... It was hell.

I went to an Indian wedding last night and am now similarly paying for it.. All day hangover. Waiting at airport now to do DEL-HKG-MEL.. If I got delayed five hours I would cry. So well done.

 

[mushez]

Military exercises! (And sometimes bad weather, but the former is much more common than the latter). All Chinese airspace is prone to delays, but the HKG-PVG more so (much more so) than others.

Countless times have had delays within and out of China, PVG more than any other port.

2 hours delay is just a normal day flying in China. Just had a 3.5 hour delay 2 days ago, one hour delay in boarding, and 2.5 hours after boarding waiting for a free slot to take off.

Had 4.5 hour delay once, which was my worst.

Being locked onboard in Y is different to being in boarding lounge awaiting to board when it comes to any delay.

 

[harvyk]

I'm a bit of a lightweight with a 2.5 hour delay.
You know you're in trouble when they decide to start showing a movie on a CBR-SYD flight, and you have yet to leave the gate.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Countless times have had delays within and out of China, PVG more than any other port.

Been very grateful for CX/KA - even oneworld ruby (QF silver) gets free exit rows and on CX flights, access to the PEY cabin if it's not being sold as PE. Has been the saviour of many a flight with long delays.

 

[wandering_fred]

1982. MNL-HNL-LAX. delay at HNL I think.
Though it could have been when all the Seoul flights diverted to Pusan in 1981/

Maybe it was the 12-15 hour overnight delay that causes me to not want to remember...
Some pax did deplane but most of us stayed and slept.

Haven't been back to MNL since.

Happy wandering

Fred

 

[OATEK]

I was on CX100 taxiing out to take off to the north at SYD as a storm rolled in. There was a long line of planes trying to beat the storm, and after about 30mins we were next to go when they closed the airport. We sat side on to the wind for a full hour, with the engines shut down to conserve fuel. So not as long as many posts here, but pretty full on for at least 20 minutes while we were buffeted by the wind and lashed by the rain. Luckily no lightning strikes.

 

[Austff]

5+ hours on Jetstar incredibly hung over in Sydney. SYD-MEL was a near 7 hour ordeal. On the plane, then had to wait for someone's bags to be offloaded. Taxied out and joined the queue. Storm rolls in. Runways closed. Once the runways reopen pilot comes over and says we are below minimum fuel to make it to MEL. Loose our take off slot, taxi back to hate. Refuel. Join back of queue again with a massive backlog of flights from the closure. It was hell.

I feel for you but I love your post.
As per the OP ,Mrs A & I flying AA from MCO-DCA on 10/03/16 ,plane is boarded & has left gate ,ground crew notices small fuel leak or fuel depositing at bottom of 1 engine ,back to gate for inspection ,after 30min captain says the engines will be run & tested as we are at the gate ,more testing goes on & 1hr later nothing has changed ,captain says we will soon know if we can go or if flight will be canceled ,we overhear FA say flight will be cancelled & door is open so we both get off & see the gate agent who rebooks us on next flight.
Luckily we were some of the first to get off so still got to DCA ok ,others had lots more drama.
Most of this story was told to me by Mrs A who says I can sleep thru anything.

 

[Mal]

3 hours in BHX due to storm Katie in the UK (on Monday). In J, only water and juice was served, and entertainment system was switched back on. I slept for around 2.5 hours of it.

 

[serfty]

2½ hours in CNS on a 767, Qantas boarded the aircraft while a RH forward cargo door was still being recalcitrant after arrival. It was a ZX ex BA with no personal directional air vents. The air-con was not coping - it seemed from the miasma we had to breath that most of the PAX had walked from town that steamy day.

Eventually, the got the door opened and replaced inwards with outwards ...

With the BO I reckon that counts as double, so 5 hours[SUP]*[/SUP] ...


[sup]*[/sup]Modified time

 

[Spongbob]

A few years ago my BA flight LHR-MAD went nowhere for 5 hours. Due to depart at 09:00, but started moving at 14:00 - some problem with the cargo door.
At least BA gave us something to eat and drink during the wait.

 

[Bolthead]

Compared to most people on this thread my experience is quite lame. I was flying QF SYD-PVG however due to a strong head wind we had to land on HKG to refuel. We sat on the tarmac for 3 hours waiting for refuelers to arrive. Luckily I was in J but there was a lot of complaints from everyone including most people in J because of the hot weather. Eventually they brought in some stairs and opened the doors but nobody was allowed off. It didn't bother be too much as I wasn't in a hurray to get to Shanghai.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

I spent over 3 hours on the tarmac at MEL while they tried to raise one of the pilot's seats so their eye level was at regulation height.

However, I spent over 10 hours on a VA B737 without actually going anywhere.
We flew from BNE to try to land at VLI but went around 3 or 4 times in low level cloud.
Then flew on to NAN to refuel. Obviously we were not allowed to deplane.
Then back to VLI to go around another 3 or 4 times.
Finally we returned to BNE.
Overnight accomodation and then on a special flight the next morning which managed to land in VLI.

 

[SuzieQ68]

Think it was about 2 hours on the tarmac in Barcelona. We were flying 'Click Air' (I know!) to Lisbon. We boarded the bus to be taken to the plane only to find the engineers working on the ENGINE!!! There was a team of about 4 or 5 trying to sort out whatever the problem was. First thought was hmmmm maybe we should ask to return to the terminal and get another flight..... Then thought, ok, let's see how this plays out. We were boarded and lucky (or unlucky) we were seated in Row 1, so had a perfect view of what was happening in the ENGINE!!!! There were tools going everywhere, lots of shaking heads. The FA then made the pilot a cup of tea, before she, another FA and the pilot stood on the steps of the aircraft posing for photos - for who or what I have no idea. Starting to get really concerned about now - the movie Flying High came to mind. The lady seated in the aisle fell asleep, then woke about 1.5 hours later and started to freshen up her makeup ..... she thought we'd landed .... sorry lovely, we haven't even switched on the ENGINE as it's still being 'fixed' by the engineers. Round of applause from the cabin when they finally announced that we were going to depart .... still a few nervous people (including me) all the way to Lisbon. Needless to say, never flown them again....and still don't know what the problem was.