JEDDAH, 1 April 2007 — A group of Jeddah-bound passengers from the southwestern city of Baha were livid after being forced to wait nine hours for a Saudi Arabian flight whose distance could be covered in a car in about three hours, the daily Al-Madinah reported yesterday.
“It was unbelievable,” said one of the passengers of flight 1701 who didn’t want to be named. “It was like we were trapped in a movie. The plane had no crew.”
Passengers said they boarded the plane and that it even began to leave the terminal. Then it went back and the passengers were told there was a technical problem. The crew and passengers deplaned, and then the passengers were forced to wait, and wait, and wait, without any indication of when the flight would take off.
Salih Al-Zahrani, the head of the Higher Education Department at Um Al-Qura University, who was one of the unlucky passengers, said that the lack of food and beverages at the airport just made the situation worse, especially for diabetics.
“Flights can get delayed in any airport, that’s normal,” said Al-Zahrani. “I saw people who had to lie down on the floor, with no medical assistance. I saw some old passengers with diabetes taking their medicine several times. How can a plane be sitting at the airport, ready to board, and there’s no crew?”
“Can you imagine, no snacks or sandwiches at the Baha airport?” said Hassan Al-Amari, another passenger. “The only shop there sells soft drinks and some biscuits which were sold out within the first hour of waiting.”
Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, another passenger, said that they sat in the plane for an hour. A flight that was scheduled to depart at 12:30 p.m. ended up leaving at 9 p.m. after another crew finally appeared.
“After we deplaned, we sat for an hour before they told us that another plane would come from Jeddah at 5 p.m.,” said Al-Ghamdi. “At six o’clock, the plane from Jeddah landed, but there was no crew for the return flight. The crew that flew the plane down refused to operate the return flight for some reason.”
The first class passengers complained that their special lounge had only eight seats, so some were forced to sit out with the rest of the passengers.
Muhammad Al-Ghamdi, another passenger, said they wanted to complain to airport officials about what he said were the filthy bathrooms. He said officials of the airport and Saudia were noticeably absent, unwilling to address the complaints.
Saad Al-Shamrani, a spokesman for the airport, told the newspaper that the delay of the first flight was due to a technical breakdown.
“The second flight however was delayed for four hours because the plane came without cabin crew for the return flight,” he said. “The problem was due to the lack of coordination between the responsible departments. Baha airport has nothing to do with this.”
The captain of the second flight, Waleed Edrees, said he didn’t know why the airline had not prepared a crew for the return flight. “I was surprised when the cabin crew that came from Jeddah deplaned,” he said. “I had then to wait hours for another crew.”
