How the hell does this happen? Not one of them thought it was weird they were waiting?

[BornSlippie]

38 passengers stood in a stairwell for 40 minutes at Manchester airport this morning. The plane left without them and their baggage was not removed which is a massive safety breach!

Don’t worry though they got a £10 voucher each 🤣 https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/the-planes-gone-passengers-left-33257487?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwdGRleAPbir5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeAqOm9yuYVQTfweKxPdgDKwGxdwgjiarz8_vB55gJqJk8HncFATD-xsXorQc_aem_iBTnS8LxhFBb9b_keY9AeA#Echobox=1768825840 if its behinds pay wall (it shouldn’t be) I have another article

Yes, and it’s utterly hideous in the heat. It shouldn’t be a thing.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned but jet2 don't (or didnt when I worked in aviation which wasn't too long ago) routinely do a head count once passengers have completed boarding. They base their final passenger numbers on however many people have been scanned through the boarding gate. However, the cabin crew should have noticed such a large number of missing passengers because they get told how many they're expecting.

The aircraft should absolutely not have taken off with the bags still on however if the dispatcher wasn't aware that all the passengers weren't on board (not their fault as they are advised of how many people have boarded by the gate staff) then they would have had no reason to advise the ramp staff to offload the bags. As far as they, the ramp staff and the flight deck are concerned, everyone is on board. The paperwork for this flight would have been very wrong because of this error. Along with the weight and balance issues it could have potentially caused.

This is the lack of a basic control :

They base their final passenger numbers on however many people have been scanned through the boarding gate.

The crew cant notice they are missing A passenger let alone a large number of passengers if they only rely on the boarding gate data.

However, the cabin crew should have noticed such a large number of missing passengers because they get told how many they're expecting.

I agree with PPs that experiened staff should notice as an estimation how many "blank spots" each side of the plane had but the security control around luggage unloading should not rely on guestimations.

Jet2 knew or should have known that there were multiple points where a passenger could relocate to/"hide" between the gate and the plane.

Failing to insert a control around that weakness is a security hole and management failing.

I did always think it was a bit odd that they didn't do a head count. But Jet2 are a bit of a strange company tbh. They're very insular and obsessive about wanting to control everything and cannot stand when they get something wrong. They probably base the lack of head counts on the fact that they couldn't possibly believe their own staff could make such an error. However, I don't know how it works at that airport in terms of handling. I know where I worked Jet2 had their own gate and check-in staff but a third party company handled the rest of it (which was also odd because they were always wanting to call the shots about everything and seemed to hate anyone who didn't work for them so I don't know why they didn't just do it all themselves 😂) like the dispatcher and ramp staff. But the ferrying around of the passengers from terminal to aircraft was down to their own staff.

@AnSolas

Jet2 knew or should have known that there were multiple points where a passenger could relocate to/"hide" between the gate and the plan

I agree that's where there the route cause for this mess probably lies but I wouldn't assume Jet2 or their personnel control/run that part of the operation....

At least where I worked, they were responsible from getting the passengers from A to B after they had been scanned through the boarding gate.

Charles De Gaulle is awful for this, dreadful sprawling poorly signposted maze of a place.

At Manchester Airport, dumb and drunk?

I don't find it odd that they waited there and didn't realise their plane was leaving without them. But I do find it VERY odd that the plane left without the boarding and cabin crew realising they were missing nearly 40 people and perhaps someone should look into it and find where they ended up.

it tells you how shit air travelling has become that waiting 40mn in the stairs is - sadly but realistically - so "normal" that no-one will question it.

Consider it's discomforts a preview of life under climate change caused by air travel ?

How did the airport not think 40 people going missing was weird?

Because as far as the airport (specificallty gate/ground staff) were concerned they'd béen checked through the gate and had got on an aircraft that had departed.

Jet2 dont have to control or run the ground services.

Jet2 do need to work with the process that is happening on ground to ensure there are proper controls in place to make sure
• the people who are listed as boaded are on the plane when it goes wheels up.
• the people who have loaded luggage are on the plane when it goes wheels up.

If their service provider(s) and their own process cant do that the Jet2 management need to own the problem and pull out of the airport.

Didn’t the guy interviewed in the article say that the 38 missing people were all from rows 26 to the rear - so their absence should have been all the more noticeable because they were missing from a fairly small section of the plane - and it also mucks up the weight distribution much more than if they were scattered around all the rows.

The ground crew at Manchester clearly ballsed up in not ensuring passengers went the right way - but the cabin crew equally ballsed up in not spotting so many absences compared with the numbers who scanned tickets at the gate. Nobody comes out of this looking good. But you can’t blame the passengers!

I wouldn't disagree with that and I expect there have been some Interesting conversations between Jet2 management and the managers of any company contracted in to provide the relevant services.

Nonsense.

I wondered that. Also, is there no cctv at least in these stairwells?

That should have alerted security at least that a sizeable number of people had been simply waiting for some time in stairwell X at departure gate Y so maybe there was a problem?

I'm not an expert, but there do now seem to have been failures on a number of levels here - Jet2 for not noticing and questioning the significant number of absent checked in passengers and taking off with their luggage still on board, and ground staff such as security who didn't notice the passengers closed into the stairwell.

Technically is there a phone number or messager method to alert someone at the airport if you have been waiting a long time and are stuck in a stairwell or corridor?

I hate airports anyway, all the queuing and this is a nightmare

Is there an update on what the reason was for the oversight?

@soupyspoon

No and it"s possible we'll not hear much more, certainly from officialdom.

Any security issues raised almost certainly won't get into the public domain..

The missloading might make it into one of the routine Flight Safety publications a few months down the road but whether that'll make mainstream media, who knows...

The point of view of a passenger...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3r17pp99xjo

Who? There’s often not any staff around when you are stuck on a stairwell

I have flown lots and I’ve never experienced this. It sounds absolutely horrendous to be corralled in a stairwell like this. It would make me even more claustrophobic than the flight does. Poor passengers.

Pop the locked emergency door 😉
its alarmed but you will likely not be allow fly after and thereafter may get to visit the local judge who may award a holiday 😀

The airport will have a central number on its website which will connect you to a human at some stage plus they normally have the airlines contact numbers too.

God almighty

TWO hours!!

I would have wet myself by then.

Disgusting. And I rarely use that word.