At first it sounds like a typical case of bad behavior aboard airplanes.

The Mexico City International Airport acknowledged in a statement Friday that a man had opened an emergency exit and walked out on a wing of a plane that was parked and waiting for takeoff Thursday.

The airport said the man had been turned over to police.

But dozens of fellow passengers signed a written copy of a statement saying the airline made them wait for four hours without ventilation or water while the flight was delayed. According to photos of the statement posted online, fellow passengers said he acted “to protect everyone, with the support of everyone.”

  • @100_percent_a_bot
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    68 months ago

    Talking completely out of my rear end here but whenever something like that happens it is usually a liability issue. Neither the airline - let alone the crew want passengers anywhere outside their plane after boarding. There’s a billion things that could go wrong if they left the plane. The crew could have likely fixed the issue with free drinks or something like that but then again, liability…

    • @Blue_Morpho
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      238 months ago

      Deboarding happens all the time. Passengers board, malfunction detected, everyone is taken off the plane. There is absolutely no liability to deboarding.

      The only issue was some manager’s bonus was at risk if they didn’t have 100% departures.

      • @100_percent_a_bot
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        -38 months ago

        It seems a bit odd to me that the crew would stick up for some manager this much. Especially since the plane did not depart in time either way. I’m leaning towards something going wrong with the communication between the airport and crew, resulting in them having no permission to deboard the plane but your guess is as good as mine.

        • @Blue_Morpho
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          8 months ago

          The crew gets paid hourly with the clock starting only after the doors close. They don’t get paid for all the time waiting for boarding/deboarding or other delays when they aren’t on the plane with the doors closed. It doesn’t matter to them whether they are in the air or not. Tarmac delays increase crew pay because longer turn around means more hours paid.

          https://www.flyingmag.com/guides/flight-attendants-pay-per-hour/#:~:text=Flight attendants are only paid,the cabin door is closed.

          In the US, after many high profile incidents, DOT rules require that the plane offers deboarding after 3 hours. But this wasn’t the US so abusing the passengers for profit is legal.

          https://www.cntraveler.com/story/tarmac-delay-rules

          There was no miscommunication. It was profit motivated.

          • @100_percent_a_bot
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            -18 months ago

            I could see the crew having a profit incentive if what you said is true but that’s a different argument

            • @Blue_Morpho
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              48 months ago

              I already linked proof that crew are paid starting when the door closes? It was in the news during the last airline strike.

              • @100_percent_a_bot
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                -18 months ago

                Yeah but again that’s not what you said before. Before that it was le evil manager guy not risking his booonus

                • @Blue_Morpho
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                  8 months ago

                  Profit margins on flights average around 9%. A plane that deboards is a loss of tens of thousands of dollars. Executives get bonuses based on the airline’s profitability.

                  https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2885&context=etd

                  You think an airline is pissing off customers with long delays for the lolz? Why would they do that if they could save money by deboarding?

                  The second part was you argued as to why the crew would accept it. I answered that with sources explaining that the crew is incentivized to wait too.

                  • @100_percent_a_bot
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                    18 months ago

                    Very interesting, I didn’t expect their margins to be this low. 9% is nothing for the capital investment you have to put up to get and run an airline, no wonder so many of them are going broke.