Honestly, one of the most frustrating parts of flying is dehydration. You spend hours in a cramped metal tube soaring through the sky at more than 500 mph just waiting to get in your seat when you land at your destination. Then don’t make me start slowly to the door as the passengers sitting in front of you get their stuff out of the overhead bin. Recently, JetBlue passengers have been through what I consider personal hell.
On Monday night, JetBlue Flight 676 departed JFK Airport in New York and arrived at Worcester Regional Airport in Massachusetts after midnight. The short flight landed at 12:15am but didn’t actually park at the gate until 1:00am. Why do passengers have to wait 45 minutes to get off the plane? Not a single JetBlue employee was present on the jet bridge connecting the plane to the airport gate.
Passenger Sabrina Ruelle told WCVB in Boston:
“It was silence, then the pilot said, ‘I have something embarrassing to tell you – no one can get you off the plane.’ They did not have staff available to drop us off the plane. The state police were there and they were going to have to evacuate us, but then they got hold of a JetBlue manager and had to ask him to drive from the house to the airport so we could get off the plane.”
JetBlue sympathizes with customer frustration and promises to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The airline also said it was investigating the incident with its ground crew operating partner in Worcester. I wouldn’t be surprised if all this were due to a staff shortage. Airlines have had to deal with staff shortages throughout the duration of the pandemic, which has caused delays and mass cancellations under the slightest pressure.
