Reason for last minute flight cancellation leaves passengers shocked

Grace and her travel companions were ready for takeoff when the crew dropped a bombshell. Photo / TikTok Gracieb2509

The shock announcement that left a planeload of travellers on the tarmac of a Dublin airport has gone viral, showing cabin staff at breaking point.

Holidaymaker Grace was due to fly from Ireland to Gatwick with national carrier Aer Lingus with her two travel companions when the cabin crew delivered disappointing news.

They were almost ready for takeoff when the crew dropped a bombshell:

The long hours and lack of staff had left the plane unable to fly.

The cabin purser was heard making the sheepish admission to the waiting plane:

"Some of my crew have run out of hours," they say.

"This is a legal maximum that they're allowed to work per day and it's regulated by the aviation authorities.

"As such, we have no choice now, but unfortunately I have had to cancel the flight.

"There is an airbridge coming up to the door at the moment, we're going to be opening the doors shortly, we would ask that you take everything with you."

These "hours" they refer to are the maximum daily shift hours that airline workers are allowed to work. The system is designed to avoid crew "burnout" and keep pilots and airline workers fresh while servicing vital aviation equipment.

However what made it so strange was how far they got before the problem was realised.

"The seatbelt sign was on and they'd done the safety demonstrations," said Grace.

The expressions of the three travel companions went viral as they realised they won't be making it to their destination as planned. The clip has garnered more than 1.3 million views and thousands of comments.

Some were less sympathetic to the crew's reason for cancelling than others.
"Why do they let it go this far?" wrote one person, assuming they must have known the flight would take them over safe operating limits.

Others saw it as a sign of the labour shortages faced by aviation, leaving remaining crews stretched thin.

"Poor crew working hard short staffed. I know the feeling at the moment."

"You can hear the sadness in the announcer's voice," agreed another.

The Irish CAA maintains that air crew cannot work more than 12 consecutive hours for safety reasons.

The London-bound Aer Lingus service was grounded at the last minute. Photo / Angel Miguel Sanz, Unsplash

Under NZ CAA rules, crews also have maximum work hours to combat crew fatigue. This depends on the role and the number of pilots and size of a crew.

However, safe hours are calculated even when crew are not flying or on "standby".
Generally when the pilot has flown more than 12 hours or been on duty more than 22 hours in any 48 consecutive hours, they are given a rest period of 24 hours. These safe hours limits also apply to crew members not in the cockpit.
In a statement Aer Lingus apologised to passengers and said that the plane had been hit by delays.

"Continuous delays, caused by ATC restrictions, to the flight's departure from Dublin, resulted in crew being 'out of hours'," a spokesperson for the airline told The Sun Online.

"Passengers were re-accommodated on the next available flights and provided with hotel accommodation as required. Aer Lingus wishes to apologise to those customers that were impacted."