Smelly Passengers and No Air Conditioning
Posted by Jeffrey on May 21st, 2008
Here’s a first for me…
I started a two-day trip: COS-LAX-PHX. Our Auxiliary Power Unit, APU, was inop when we picked up the airplane in COS, which means we weren’t going to have any air conditioning (or electricity) while on the ground. Total inconvenience considering that the temperatures were getting into the low 70′s and was projected to be in the 80s when we got to LAX.
Well other than the normal non-APU start, the flight from COS to LAX was uneventful. In LAX we picked up 49 passengers. After the 49 passengers boarded, a lady come up and was complaining about the passenger next to her saying that he smelled. So we sat her in an empty seat. Unfortunately, a 50th passenger was about to board and now the “NEW” passenger was going to be asked to sit next to the smelly passenger. It took some doing but we eventually asked the smelly passenger to go and “freshen-up” and then return to the plane. He was apologetic and the rest of the flight was uneventful. Amazingly enough, most people seemed fairly happy when they got off the airplane even though we were about 20 minutes behind schedule.
It was a good lesson for me because I had never had to deal with such a situation. It seemed the right thing to do was to listen to the flight attendant and the complaint resolution officer (CRO) and work out an amiable solution for everyone…even if the flight was going to be late.
To Your Flying Success…
Jeffrey
Jeffrey is a captain at a regional airline and flies the CRJ200, CRJ700, and the CRJ900. He has over 4000 hrs of flying experience in many different airplanes and is a Gold Seal flight instructor to his credit. He has recently written “The CRJ200 Quicknote Study Guide” that simplifies the systems of the CRJ200 into a easy-to-understand, downloadable eBook. Click here to get your copy today!
