Delta Flight Lands At Wrong Terminal & Passengers Bypass Immigration
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Sounds like they went to the correct Gate, It was the Gate Staff that did not close the door from the Departure Part of the T4 Concourse, and open the door that directs the passengers to the T4 International Clearance area.
I have not been in T4 since it was renovated, but the Old T4 had a walkway of about 6 Feet around the outside of the T4 terminal, that would take you to Clearance area.
My guess is its still configured that way (Alot of airports use that sort of design to allow dual usage of the gates for Domestic & international )
Sounds like they went to the correct Gate, It was the Gate Staff that did not close the door from the Departure Part of the T4 Concourse, and open the door that directs the passengers to the T4 International Clearance area.
Ahhh, yes, that would explain it. And that seems much more logical, and likely to happen than an aircraft being directed to the wrong gate.
Sounds like they went to the correct Gate, It was the Gate Staff that did not close the door from the Departure Part of the T4 Concourse, and open the door that directs the passengers to the T4 International Clearance area.
This sounds plausible except...the baggage also went to a domestic carousel. If it were simply a matter of the gate agent opening the wrong door, the bags would still have routed into the customs hall. From what I gathered from the story, the bags went to the domestic arrivals baggage claim.
From what I read, Most passengers went to domestic Baggage Claim area,
Odds are when they could not find the carousel with there bags they asked at the baggage office, and that when they figured it out, and were taken back to the International Area, to get clear'ed by Immigration, get there bags, then pass Thru customs. There are reports that not everyone was accounted for. Some passengers who just had carry-on's just left the airport.
Delta is in the process of transitioning JFK into a world class facility. Right now I think they have 3 terminals active: The old Pan Am "Worldport" (set to be demolished), an older offset of that terminal that looks like an ugly green box, and the new terminal 4 which opened last year. So not sure if it's the fault of the pilot of ATC, but it has to be confusing with 3 terminals to cover with DL arrival/departure activity and the many regional jets that clog the area as well.
Sounds like they went to the correct Gate, It was the Gate Staff that did not close the door from the Departure Part of the T4 Concourse, and open the door that directs the passengers to the T4 International Clearance area.
I have not been in T4 since it was renovated, but the Old T4 had a walkway of about 6 Feet around the outside of the T4 terminal, that would take you to Clearance area.
My guess is its still configured that way (Alot of airports use that sort of design to allow dual usage of the gates for Domestic & international )
I'm guessing that this is what happened. I was in Terminal 4 the other day (arriving on a domestic flight), and we exited through the departure lounge.
From what I read, Most passengers went to domestic Baggage Claim area,
Odds are when they could not find the carousel with there bags they asked at the baggage office, and that when they figured it out, and were taken back to the International Area, to get clear'ed by Immigration, get there bags, then pass Thru customs. There are reports that not everyone was accounted for. Some passengers who just had carry-on's just left the airport.
All right. That makes a bit more sense than the story I read. From what I read it seemed like their bags came out to a domestic carousel and then Delta tried to round them up as their bags were coming out.
In that case, I wonder if Delta is going to get hit with a big fine?
Delta is in the process of transitioning JFK into a world class facility. Right now I think they have 3 terminals active: The old Pan Am "Worldport" (set to be demolished), an older offset of that terminal that looks like an ugly green box, and the new terminal 4 which opened last year. So not sure if it's the fault of the pilot of ATC, but it has to be confusing with 3 terminals to cover with DL arrival/departure activity and the many regional jets that clog the area as well.
The "Worldport" has been pretty much leveled. Terminal 4 seems to be used for international and transcontinental flights, and the old Terminal 2 is used for everything else (i.e. short haul domestic).
Didn't know this. So who tells the plane which exit off the runway to take? And when does the handoff from Air to Ground Control occur?
The "air" control, is known as the local controller, and controls the active runways and a 5 mile radius up to 3000ft above the ground. Once a landing aircraft is clear of the runway, he is changed over to the ground controller's radio frequency.
The ground controller controls the taxiways.
Aircraft aren't instructed to exit the runway at specific turn offs. This is dependent on how soon the aircraft reduces to taxi speed on the landing roll out. The controller may ask a pilot if he is able to turn off at a specific intersection, but it is up to the pilot in command to determine if he can safely do so.
What taxiway(s) an aircraft used, has nothing to do with a misplaced gate assignment. The ATC system has no involvement in this, and it's not a safety of flight issue.
I hate to say it, but I'll bet the onus is on the passengers who weren't properly screened to go back to the airport and report to CBP. I'd also imagine that if they don't do it, they could face difficulties later down the road. CBP will have access to the manifest and will know who did and didn't enter the country properly.
The responsibility falls onto the airline. International flying is a totally foreign and intimidating concept to many people on the planet, and something they may do once or twice in their life.
I've literally seen a guy off a Delta flight from South America, after landing in Atlanta, walk out the service door of the jetbridge when apparently no one was looking, onto the ramp, and try to hail a cab on the roadway with all of the catering trucks and baggage carts.
He was perfectly sane, it was just his first time ever outside of his little village.
In this case, if the airline rep set the gate up for a domestic departure (you walk straight ahead, into the terminal) instead of an international arrival (you walk upstairs, into INS), then it's totally their fault. Now if a passenger had purposefully walked past "Do Not Enter" signs or something like that, that would be a different story.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OpenD
Didn't know this. So who tells the plane which exit off the runway to take? And when does the handoff from Air to Ground Control occur?
The local controller (tower) will handle the aircraft until it's down and clear of all active runways. They don't generally tell them a specific exit to take, unless there's construction going on or something that would necessitate that.
At JFK, if you land 4R/22L, you'll stay with tower while you're in the area of taxiways Yankee and Zulu since, even though you're clear of the runway you just landed on, you still have to cross 4L/22R.
So once you're clear of all active runways, tower will hand you off to ground. You'll tell ground what terminal and gate you're headed to, and they'll direct you to the appropriate ramp entrance.
Once you enter the ramp and clear the taxiways, you'll contact ramp control, who will guide you to your specific gate.
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