abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?secti … id=6532532
Does not look like much fun. Reminds me of the Jet Blue snafu.
What’s funny, is that they they either flew or drove another crew the 50 miles out to KONT to fly the plane BACK to LAX! Granted they probably all had connecting flights/reservations from LAX, but to keep them on the plane for 9 hours? It hardly couldn’t have been a Customs thing, as they could have cleared customs at ONT, and sat in the terminal.
I’d love to hear the fallout on this.
BL.
fall out will be minimal I’m guessing, but you never know how some people may react.
Sounds familar except I only had to deal with it for 3 hours, from a Airline Agent point of view. It is well noted that the Dayton INTERNATIONAL Airport has no customs.
Neither does KSBD, KDUG, and KRRT, yet they are international airports. What would have to happen in this case, is that a plane could land there, but Customs would need to be dispatched from a nearby office to inspect everything for the the plane that arrived, before any deplaning could happen. In KSBD’s case, the Customs office is at KONT.
So for the plane to be at ONT, why not let customs (who is already there) inspect the plane, and let them get off?
BL.
A NWA flight from London landed here the other night. The pax were not allowed off. ‘Certified’ buses from Seattle were brought over and everone was taken to SeaTac. It’s about a 2.5 hour drive by car (90nm by bird) to SeaTac.
I understand that the NWA bird had to land somewhere because of mechanical problems. You would think the TACA flight could be sent somewhere with customs. 
That’s the funny part. ONT has customs.
204.108.4.16/d-tpp/0812/00965AD.PDF
Note the Int’l Arrivals terminal. Customs is located there.
BL.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=6532532
a spokesman for U.S. Customs said TACA Airlines never asked permission to deplane the passengers.
TACA Airlines released a statement: “At Ontario we don’t have the local authorities’ permission for our passengers to go through customs and enter the country through this point. This forces us to keep our passengers on board the aircraft until the situation changes.”
Sorry i missed that. Is there a reason they didn’t ask authorities?
I’m not sure the mechanical diversion is true. The AA flight mentioned in the story arrived at the same time (~5pm) as the NWA. The news station reported it arrived the next morning, which is when it departed. I could barely see either one from a couple hundred feet away. I could only tell where the AA flight was from the fuel truck’s beacon.