Jourdan747 From United States of America, joined Mar 2001, 193 posts, RR: 0 Posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 1913 times:
>Gifts and EMT Support for Town that Welcomed Unscheduled Landing
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>ATLANTA, April 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL - news) is saying a big ``thank you'' to an Alaska town that gave a gracious welcome to a Delta flight diverted there in a precautionary landing on March 23.
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>Residents of Cold Bay, Alaska, -- population 69 -- took 220 passengers and crew members into their homes, cooked breakfast and provided blankets after Delta Flight 79, a McDonnell-Douglas 11 (MD-11) aircraft, made an unscheduled stop at the Alaska Peninsula village en route to Tokyo from Los Angeles.
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>``Cold Bay provided a very warm welcome to our passengers and crew,'' said Mac Armstrong, Delta's executive vice president - operations. ``The residents went out of their way to be helpful and treat everyone on Flight 79 like old friends. We would like to extend a little Delta hospitality in return.''
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>The town sent both its school buses, joined by volunteers with minivans, to the local airfield and shuttled passengers to the Cold Bay School gym, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service housing, and the two local inns. A number of passengers traveling with children were welcomed into nearby homes, while several Cold Bay residents stayed up all night cooking biscuits, bacon, salmon and rice for the travelers.
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>In gratitude for the town's hospitality, Delta will provide $7,000 to enable Cold Bay to receive a matching grant from the state of Alaska for a new two-way radio system for local emergency medical technicians (EMT). Delta also sent a gift of 50 cases of fresh fruit and vegetables not grown on the windswept tundra and will send Delta T-shirts for the kids at Cold Bay School.
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>Jim Zerbe, Delta's station manger in Anchorage, will present a check to the mayor, as well as a plaque officially thanking the people of Cold Bay, in a ceremony this week.
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>Cold Bay has a 10,000-foot runway dating back to World War II days, when the location was used as a military staging point. Today, the runway is an alternate landing site for the space shuttle.
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>SOURCE: Delta Air Lines, Inc.
L-188 From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 29350 posts, RR: 62 Reply 2, posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 1 day 1 hour ago) and read 1750 times:
Pen Air is doing flights down there. Probably with Metro III and Saab 340 equiptment. It is about a two hour trip though.
I do want to point out that it was all private vehicles that did the hauling. There isn't a single school bus in all of CDB.
By the way this is where they landed. It is pretty impressive when you can fit the whole town into the shot.
I have seen one photo of the A/C on the ground there. They parked it next to the FSS on the North ramp. The FSS is the blue building with yellow strips in the lower middle of the shot. The A/C parked on the far ramp from where the shot was taken.
PW4084 From United States of America, joined Mar 2001, 291 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 15 hours ago) and read 1622 times:
On the earlier thread about this incident we were musing at how the passengers were unloaded. I was at PACD three or four days ago and talked to some of the folks that work at the airport. They have an airstair and didn't have to use the forklift to de-board the passengers. As L-188 stated, it is about 2 hours and 20 minutes to Cold Bay in PenAir's Metroliner. Occasionally, Alaska Airliners passengers get to stop there when the 737 doesn't make it into Dutch Harbor. Glad to hear that Delta found ways to give back to the community.
Tupolev154B2 From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 1332 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 1579 times:
One of the bright spots in the midst of all of the tension in the world.
Wingman From Trinidad and Tobago, joined May 1999, 1837 posts, RR: 5 Reply 8, posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 12 hours ago) and read 1562 times:
That's great. I'm sure the poeple will benefit more from improved EMT services than free airline tickets. I don't poeple living in a place like this have a great demand for air travel.
One question, the space shuttle can land on a 10,000 ft. runway? I guess you'd have to nail that one to the foot considering you're in glide mode...?
L-188 From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 29350 posts, RR: 62 Reply 9, posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 12 hours ago) and read 1554 times:
That must be something new. PW4084.
When I was out there the only airstairs was one that was built for the Reeve Electras and one that was built for the IL-62. The one for the IL-62 will fit at 757 but my understanding was the door height was considerably higher..
They must have quickly modified it to fit that aircraft.
You probably saw the shot of the MD-11 that was in the ADN a couple of weeks ago when this happened. You see the forklife behind the aircraft and it appears to be manuvering the IL-62 stairs around.
I had heard that it took a while for them to start offload. My assumption was that it was they had to "learn" the stair didn't fit.
But your source seems to differ.
OBAMA-WORST PRESIDENT EVER....Even SKOORB would be better.
PW4084 From United States of America, joined Mar 2001, 291 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 9 hours ago) and read 1511 times:
L-188, thanks for that information. I talked to a PenAir ramper who said they used the airstair and motioned toward where it is kept by the hangar. I found that picture (ADN 25-Mar '01) and it does appear to be the forklift and one of the stairs. Next time I am down there I will ask someone else and poke around to see what kind of airstair is available. I heard that all of Reeve's stuff is available for premium prices!
King Salmon has a UAL airstair that would easily accomodate a widebody a/c I guess.
VirginA340 From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 15 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 5 hours ago) and read 1474 times:
I hope other airlines do the same if they are in that situation. It really shows on how they do care.
FLY777UAL From United States of America, joined May 1999, 4510 posts, RR: 3 Reply 13, posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 5 hours ago) and read 1461 times:
Horrible. Delta is the cheapest airline...
They gave the town $7,000?! Big deal...spread that out over the 220 passengers and 18 crew members...ooh...Delta spent a big $29 per person rewarding the town...
Sounds a little cheap to me, considering that Delta saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by not having to bus the passengers to Anchorage, feed them, and give them hotel rooms...at LEAST $200 per person...
DesertJets From United States of America, joined Feb 2000, 7673 posts, RR: 18 Reply 14, posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 4 hours ago) and read 1459 times:
despite what some have said this is a fairly generous gift.
Money for a new radio for the local EMTs is a very good gift that will go a long way to helping out the community. Plus the fresh fruits and vegatables are certainly going to be well liked by the families in Cold Bay. It is really much more than just individual compensation, which I would think would be a rather poor and typically corportate gesture.
Stop drop and roll will not save you in hell. --- seen on a church marque in rural Virginia
DeltaSFO From United States of America, joined Nov 2000, 2488 posts, RR: 24 Reply 15, posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 4 hours ago) and read 1455 times:
Horrible. Delta is the cheapest airline...
They gave the town $7,000?! Big deal...spread that out over the 220 passengers and 18 crew members...ooh...Delta spent a big $29 per person rewarding the town...
Sounds a little cheap to me, considering that Delta saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by not having to bus the passengers to Anchorage, feed them, and give them hotel rooms...at LEAST $200 per person...
Give me a break...
F L Y 7 7 7 U A L
No, you give me a break. Please.
What would UA have done? Given them a new 777?
DeltaSFO
It's a new day. Every moment matters. Now, more than ever.
FLY777UAL From United States of America, joined May 1999, 4510 posts, RR: 3 Reply 16, posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 4 hours ago) and read 1445 times:
N202PA From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 1549 posts, RR: 4 Reply 17, posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 3 hours ago) and read 1439 times:
Good God, Fly777UAL, what did you want them to do, build the town a new airport?
Or would you have Delta throw free tickets at the residents of Cold Bay? I'm sure *those* will do them a lot of good when someone has a serious condition that requires immediate medical attention.
Bottom line, the importance of this gesture is greater than the sum of the amount spent on the gifts. The town gets something that makes them all better off as a community in terms of safety. They get fruit and vegetables (the value of which you conveniently forgot to mention), which would either be impossible or at least very difficult to obtain in Alaska, and surely rather expensive. 50 cases is no small amount of produce, especially for such a small town.
It's the gesture that's important. Cold Bay is getting paid back for its generosity with things they can use more than the cold, corporate gift of airline tickets and such.
EIPremier From United States of America, joined Sep 2000, 1533 posts, RR: 2 Reply 19, posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 hours ago) and read 1413 times:
I would have been quite surprised if DL had not offered some sort of gesture of goodwill. Why risk further negative PR when a small expenditure can turn the whole story around such that it reflects positively on your company? Delta took the logical action. Also, it's certainly possible that such an event could occur again, so why take the risk of a customer service disaster?
True, Delta didn't exactly break the bank on their gifts, but they at least chose their gifts wisely. It doesn't seem cheap to me, but it certainly isn't frivolous.
L-188 From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 29350 posts, RR: 62 Reply 20, posted (12 years 1 month 3 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 1406 times:
HEY Fly777UAL.....Delta couldn't bus anybody anywhere! There aren't any roads there. It is either an hour by jet or three days by boat. And take a look at that picture of the place I posted....There aren't really a lot of apple orchards there either.
The problem with all the Reeve equipt up there is that it may be cheap but it has been out there a long long long time and unless you live there you have to get it out of town.
OBAMA-WORST PRESIDENT EVER....Even SKOORB would be better.
Jmc1975 From Israel, joined Sep 2000, 3159 posts, RR: 17 Reply 22, posted (12 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 1381 times:
I believe the the remarks made by FLY777UAL are a reflection of what United has become. I don't believe United would have paid anything to the people of Cold Bay, however they probably would have given all the passengers affected vouchers for future travel. But then again, I'm sure Delta did too.
DeltaRNOmd-80 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 23, posted (12 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 9 hours ago) and read 1372 times:
by PenAir, that is short for Peninsula Airways right? My dad used to work for Peninsula Airways in Kodiak, AK. If I am correct, I believe most of thier fleet is seaplanes.
Good job Delta for compensating the village. FLY777UAL, I wouldn't comment on Delta's customer service when your airline is not really an expert in that department.
DesertJets From United States of America, joined Feb 2000, 7673 posts, RR: 18 Reply 24, posted (12 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 6 hours ago) and read 1349 times:
One more thing... It took some thinking for me to reach this point too.
But somebody at Delta must have really been doing their homework if they found out that Cold Bay had a need for a new radio system for the EMTs. Which I still think is an invaluable gift.
Stop drop and roll will not save you in hell. --- seen on a church marque in rural Virginia
25 Twotterwrench: Fact is, what they did for Cold Bay is probably EXACTLY what the villagers asked for. I have lived all over the bush in Alaska for almost 10 years, an
26 SJC>SFO: You know, I thought that the $7,000 was pretty measly too. But then I thought about it, and as has been posted here, their gifts were far more persona
27 L-188: Correct DeltaRNOmd80....... So your dad used to fly for Orin? Most of the fleet are conventional landplanes. About the only seaplanes that he has are
28 737doctor: Personally, I applaud Delta for the way they reciprocated the gesture of the townspeople. Considering today's cold corporate climate, I thought that t
29 PW4084: L-188, I'll be in Cold Bay on Saturday. I'm working for Orin myself, make it out there probably 1-2 times a week. I think we have 3 G-21 aircraft righ
30 L-188: Lets see here......they should have.. The Blue Goose with the fixed tip floats. 7811 which was the one they got off the troopers. And they have that o
31 PW4084: L-188, I am sitting in the right seat of the 'tube' currently. You are correct: no widgeons anymore. The airplane by the hangar is still there...wingl
32 L-188: Yeah. The tubes.....nuf said.... It is a crime to leave a classic goose like that wingless. But I guess that economics rule out. :,-) I believe that t
33 PW4084: dream setup................that would be nice! I'll report back from CDB after Saturday
34 L-188: Well, Keep your stuff tied down. I have seen the troopers King Air 200 floating foot off it's tiedown straps once.
36 Twotterwrench: Actually, they do still rotate MX out of CDB , L-188. When BET shut down last week, my buddy that does MX was told go to CDB or you are unemployed. So
38 L-188: Damm!!! to bad I don't have a license yet!!! You where just waiting to tell me that trotterwrench!
39 L-188: I just noticed this......For all of the rest of you out in "radioland"(I always wanted to type that ) That stairway next to the tank behind the goose
40 PW4084: from the 'Cold Bay' department: I talked to a few more guys there on Saturday about the airstair, they said it was almost flush with the doorway....so
41 DeltaRNOmd-80: yeah, I guess my dad worked for Orin. This was about 9 years ago when he worked for them, and I was just a wee one, so I dont know much about it. But
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