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The language of air traffic control is commendably succinct. “Nationwide grounding of all major AAL aircraft and submarines,” the advisory message sent by the US command center at 11.50am GMT on Christmas Eve stated.
Al is American AirlinesThe instructions to air traffic controllers across the United States (and, it turns out, the world) were to prevent the carrier's planes from taking off. The fact that it affected “submarines” — small airlines that operate regional flights for Americans, as well as major operations — suggests that something had gone wrong in the departure control system. This is the technology that manages the critical elements of flight dispatch, from check-in to load control, ensuring the weight of passengers, cargo and fuel is appropriately distributed on board.
The ground stop ended just one hour after it began. This was excellent news for frustrated passengers crammed onto flight AA137 from London Heathrow Airport To Los Angeles. The Boeing 777 aircraft backed out of the gate on schedule at 11.15am, but remained on the ground until the order was lifted. The plane finally took off at 1 p.m., and was expected to arrive in California more than an hour late, putting future communications at risk.
In its statement after the crash, American Airlines followed the standard aviation public relations practice of shifting blame to a third party: “A supplier technical issue briefly impacted flights this morning. This issue has been resolved and flights have resumed.”
“It's all hands on deck as our team works hard to get customers where they need to go as quickly as possible.”
Good luck with that. Air traffic control's Christmas choreography doesn't respond well to a giant airline's entire fleet (except for those already airborne) being pinned to the ground for an hour.
I estimate that about 300 flights, all with the necessary air traffic control clearances, were scheduled to depart at that restricted hour. These precious permissions cannot simply be postponed to the next hour: American Airlines itself has 300 more planes to send in that time frame.
The departing flight from Heathrow to Charlotte, which was scheduled to depart 40 minutes after the ground stop was lifted, took off an hour behind schedule.
To tie up passengers, it raises stress levels. Add to that the uncertainty about how long it will take to clear US Customs and Border Protection, as every arriving traveler must do even if they are transferring to another international flight, and the likelihood of arriving at their destination before December 25 is slim.
All of this happens when airline passengers invest heavily, both emotionally and financially, in their festive travel plans.
The ability of aviation to generate a new nightmare scenario every Christmas is limitless. These include particularly severe accidents Drone before Christmas in Gatwick In 2018, Sussex Airport was closed for three days in the run-up to 25 December – grounding 1,000 flights and ruining the plans of 150,000 travellers.
Five years ago, in the early hours of Christmas Eve 2013, the basement of Gatwick Airport's North Terminal was flooded. Main electrical system failureAs a result, about 100 flights were canceled and 11,000 passengers were stranded.
These numbers were exceeded at Heathrow in 2010 When heavy snow halted operations for several days and foiled the plans of 600,000 passengers.
What lesson can we learn from such mares before Christmas? The more important your trip, the more days you should allow to rearrange your schedule if your plans fall apart.
Or stay put for the holiday season and wait for prices and stress to subside. On Boxing Day, British Airways wants £1,080 for a week's round trip from Gatwick to Tampa in Florida; I'm leaving in 10 days and paying less than half the amount.
