Angry Passengers Protest 22-Hour Delay of Flight

Nearly 300 angry French passengers cooled their heels at San Francisco International Airport for almost 22 hours on Thursday while waiting for their chartered L-1011 jetliner to be repaired, authorities said Friday.

Airport spokesman Ron Wilson said the passengers at one time protested by blocking the exit doors in the international terminal and bedding down in sleeping bags in the terminal corridors.

The plane operated by American Trans Air had been scheduled to leave at 7 p.m. Wednesday. It finally departed for Paris at 4:45 p.m. Thursday after a cockpit instrument panel module and a fuel leak were repaired, Wilson said.

The situation was complicated because the passengers, who ranged from their late teens to middle-age, all spoke French and very little English, Wilson said. He commended a volunteer interpreter for “defusing a potentially explosive situation.”

“In this case, there was a lot of misinformation,” Wilson said, adding that the passengers were repeatedly told that the plane would be fixed within a few hours, only to be told when that time arrived that the repairs weren’t completed.

“They kept being led astray, so to speak,” he said.

They boarded the plane once, only to be ordered off again, he said. At one point, the passengers were given chits for a nearby hotel and advised to return in four hours to depart. When they came back, the flight was delayed again, Wilson said.

“I can’t remember anyone sticking around the terminal for 22 hours,” he said.

At one point there was a scuffle between police and one of the male passengers, he said.

At about 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Annick Desmueles, a station manager with LTU International, volunteered to act as interpreter for the airport, he said. She quickly explained to the group members that airport officials were sympathetic with their situation and did not oppose non-violent demonstrations, but the passengers could be arrested unless they left emergency exits unobstructed.

“They immediately dispersed,” he said.