Etihad passengers complain of 12-hour wait on tarmac
Print Edition
HUNDREDS of air travelers landed in San Francisco, safe but irritated after a 28-hour overseas flight they say included 12 hours on a tarmac in the Middle East without food or accurate flight information.
Tempers grew short on Etihad Airways Flight 183 when fog in the city of Abu Dhabi delayed takeoff for a half-day, passengers told San Francisco broadcaster KGO.
“They kept telling us that we were going to leave, you know 15 minutes from now, 20 minutes from now, 30 minutes for now, for 12 hours,” passenger Thomas Piani said after landing in San Francisco on Saturday.
Passengers said the flight crew told them the Abu Dhabi airport was too crowded with stranded flights to allow them to get off the plane to wait.
“Everybody was fighting with each other, and the flight attendants were fighting with us, and we were fighting with the flight attendants,” passenger Venkatesh Pahwa said.
Etihad, a national airline of the United Arab Emirates, said in a statement on its website that fog had delayed flights and caused airport congestion. The airline apologized for travelers’ inconvenience but said the delays were beyond its control.
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