Alaska Airlines 7271 (AKA 871) Arrives in Anchorage Finally

Instead of arriving at 5am this morning, a new flight was created that left Honolulu this afternoon and made it to Anchorage a little after 9pm.

So, here's the updated, somewhat corrected story. Mind you, this is what TOE related when he, his wife, and son arrived tonight based on the kind of information passengers can glean from each other and airline personnel and what they make up to fill in the holes. Thus it's not necessarily accurate.

The passenger last night had pneumonia and was having trouble an hour out of Honolulu. There was a doctor on board who treated the man and to be safe they returned to Honolulu. The patient/passenger was taken off. But then the medical equipment that had been used for the ill patient had to be replaced. It is part of the FAA required medical equipment. It was this they were supposedly waiting for. Not, as I understood this morning, for some equipment so the ill passenger could get back on board.


Then Alaska had to create a new flight number so the flight wouldn't be confused with today's 871. That apparently got caught up in some computer problems and after everyone got new seating, when they boarded they were told to ignore the new seating and go back to the seats they had the night before. AND, the passenger whose medical problems caused all this, was back on the flight. You'd think that they could have put him on the other flight to Anchorage today, but maybe he preferred the earlier flight even though he had to see all the people whose lives his illness had disrupted. TOE gave all the passengers high marks for behavior. Well, they did get an extra day in Hawaii. They might not have been so accommodating if this had happened when they were leaving Anchorage and would lose a day of their vacations. (OK, not everyone was there on vacation, but I bet most were.)

I understand Alaska Airlines only started its Anchorage-Honolulu run recently after buying out Hawaiian Vacations, but you'd think they would have back up supplies for the mandatory medical equipment readily available. And being the middle of the night is not an excuse since that is when their flights go everyday. And they had an hour notice that the plane was returning. Assuming this was the actual hold up, you'd think they could have just traded the plane's medical kit for a new one and gotten out of there as soon as the passenger was off before bumping into the time limit the flight crew could fly. But I'm sure there's more to the story.

Apparently there was a giant jam up for these passengers at the agricultural extension this morning as well. At least they'd all had a vacation in Hawaii before this all happened. And Alaska Airlines did pay for their hotel rooms in Honolulu last night.

And, as I said, this is the story as my friends knew it. I did not talk to Alaska Airlines to get their story.