JL1662 delayed due to accident...a car accident

There is a delay on Japan Airlines flight 1662 from Izumo to Haneda on March 23 2010. So why is it delayed? Isn't JAL the most on-time airline :P Well, this time the delay is caused by a car accident that JAL has little control over. I know what you are thinking. No the car did not hit the plane :P

The aircraft used on this flight is an Airbus 300-600R. The plane was ready and so are the 100+ passengers. But there was one problem: where are the crew members? Turns out the pilots and cabin attendants were involved in a car accident when they were on their way to the airport. The vehicle they were on hit a truck (or is it the other way round?). So JAL has to replace the crew members on that car. As a result, the flight was delayed for 2.5 hours and arrived Haneda at 11:28 instead of the scheduled 8:55. JL1664, which is the second Izumo-Haneda flight of the day, actually departed and arrived 10 minutes before JL1662. The two flights are almost flying wing-tip to wing-tip :P

The flight load is kind of sad though. If there were 100 passengers on this flight, that means the load factor were around 35%! As reported in yesterday's incident post, JAL only has one configuration of A300-600R and that can carry 290 passengers (34J 256Y). That is below the March 2009 average load factor of 59%! :(

However, the 2.5 hours delay is impressive! Assuming all crew members are involved, that means JAL were able to replace 2 pilots and 7 cabin attendants, did the pre-flight check in 2.5 hours. And remember Izumo is not one of JAL's hubs. I wonder if JAL flew in the crew from HND or did some crew swapping. But this is indeed impressive! Unlike AA who had to cancel my BOS-LAX flight because the co-pilot did not show up for work, yes only one crew member and they couldn't find a replacement. Isn't BOS one of AA's focus cities?

Source: zakzak (in Japanese)

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