I just got back from the airport to pick up my dad, he’s flying in from Chicago O’Hare, flight 1184. After walking through one of those huge rotating luggage doors, I take a quick glance at the arrival board, expecting to see what I saw online only 20 minutes ago when I left home. Instead I see that the flight has been canceled.
What the fuck?
After 10 minutes of trying to hound down the United Air rep. (who was hiding upstairs near the ticket counter), I was informed that the weather was keeping United from taking off from Chicago. Fair reason, I suppose.
After coming home, just out of curiousity I wanted to check out the mach 5 typhoon that was apparently tearing O’Hare to shreds, only to find this…
CLOUDY. A;LDSKJFSKDJFLAKWEJTLAKJSDLTKAJSDF
Surprise surprise, No delays from any other airlines out of Chicago due to weather. Why? BECAUSE THERE IS NO FUCKING WEATHER. So I don’t know what the fuck, my dad can take a damn taxi, and United should pick up the tab.
Hmm, doesn’t make much sense. Are other flights out of O’Hare canceled? I wonder if the plane he was supposed to take from chi-town to buffalo didn’t make it to chi-town because of weather somewhere else? Anyhow, yeah ain’t flying a bitch?
dude… imagine you are in the air… and you have X amount of gas to fly to this place (they will not fucking overload the plane cause taking off at places (other than Airforce bases) aren;t long enough to accommodate the fuel load. so you have 60k lbs of fuel to go on a 1.5 hour flight having to fly around a major storm system. which could be an extra 2 hours of flying… fuel is gone diverted else where… would you wanna be diverted somewhere else or and 6 hour cab ride back at an unbelieve able price… or just be delayed…
trust me i would rather be delayed a few hours than fly through some horrible fucking weather… try flying into eielson where they have a 20 knot cross wind and its the most unbelievable landing of your life… they won’t subject their passangers to a ridiculous landing when they don’t have to…
I’ve had some crazy landings in hawaii and you know what its not worth the scare… The airplanes are at the mercy of the weather… LET THEM BE!!! don’t bitch
Rain is half the battle…actually rain doesn’t mean a fucking thing… the wind and micro bursts are the fear… uncontrollable and unpredictable
there is more to it that united, there are FAA part 135 restrictions, a heavy fog that reduces visability would fuck the flight up. I know first hand that if a flight can fly legally it will, its not really the pilots descretion, its the FAA’s and the companies. He might have the final call, but its by the books. “i rather be on the ground wishing i was in the air, than in the air wishing i was on the ground” theres much more to this flying business than what weatherdotcom has to say.
:lol: I was stranded in Chicago airport for 14 hours yesterday. On the way back from Hongkong there was a guy on the flight got a heart attack and almost died. He stop breathing and they revived him and made an emergency landing in Seattle. This result in missing my connection flight. Then Chicago got hit with a thunder storm. You can see the layers and layers of clouds and lightning in the sky right infront of your eyes. All airlines in Chicago delayed and cancelled flights out of Chicago. Some flights can’t make it to Chicago to pick up people. The run was closed for a while.
Come to think of it, I’ve been stranded overnight at O’hare twice. I’ve only flown through O’hare 4, maybe 5 times. The airline booked us a hotel one night and the other time I had to sleep on airport chairs. That was a really shitty night.
ORD airport is right on the southwest side of Lake Michigan, and yesterday it got hammered by the weather. From 6am to 3pm. This is yesterdays radar loop. I used to fly for United Express and went into ORD on a daily basis. When a big storm rolls though that area, the airport simply closes until it has passed. If they are closed for a long time it is impossible to get caught up to meet schedules. And some flights have to cancel because by the time the airplane eventually gets to Chicago, its too late to leave. Flight crews have limits as to how long they can be on duty.
United and all major airlines operate under part 121 not 135, but the rules are somewhat similar.
This is very true. Although the Captain has the final authority, if the dispatcher deems it safe to make the flight, and all the legal weather requirements have been met, you can expect a harsh phone call from the Chief Pilot if you say no I’m not going.
20knot crosswind, common thats no problem for an airliner. I shoot 15kt crosswinds for fun in a cessna, agreed the microbursts are the problem, windshear can’t be cool in a jet
Still am, I fly for Chautauqua Airlines. We used to operate for United Express and US Airways Express out of Buffalo but now we just do the Airways stuff.
Me at work:
