Hawaiian Airlines flight delay due to ‘odor’ on plane leaves passengers stranded in NYC airport for 33 hours

‘The safety of our guests and employees is our highest priority,’ the airline said in a statement

A Hawaiian Airlines flight was delayed for more than 30 hours at John F Kennedy airport due to an odour on the plane.

The flight was initially scheduled to take off at 10am on Tuesday 18 July from the New York City airport to Honolulu, Hawaii, as reported by WNBC-TV. However, according to the passengers on the flight, their trip continued to get pushed back throughout the day, before the plane finally departed 33 hours late.

“Every time they delay it, they don’t give us a real reason for the delay,” Joe Rao, Jr, one of the travellers on the flight, told WNBC-TV. “We learned that there was a malfunction of some kind, a mechanical issue of some kind, that needed to be remedied and they said that the part needed to be flown in from Atlanta, Georgia.”

According to Rao, once the issue was fixed, another one arose: a weird smell in the plane. “Then the pilot didn’t wanna clear the flight because he said it smelled of fumes,” he added.

Hawaiian Airlines confirmed in a statement to The Independent that the reason for the delay was a “reported odour” while the cabin was being pre-checked.

“On Tuesday, July 18, our crews reported an odour during a pre-departure cabin check of HA51, prompting a thorough inspection of the aircraft by maintenance,” the airline said. “Troubleshooting of the issue continued into yesterday morning, causing our flight crews to exceed their maximum number of legally allowed duty hours and requiring them to return to the hotel for rest.”

The company added: “The safety of our guests and employees is our highest priority and we deeply apologise for the inconvenience.”

Jeff White, who was identified as another passenger on the plane, told PIX 11 that when hundreds of other passengers were waiting for the Hawaiian Airlines flight to be rescheduled, it was “a circus”. He claimed that the airline didn’t return any luggage during the wait, which meant that people were unable to take another flight.

“There are small children...elderly people and mothers with newborns who were unable to retrieve their baggage,” he said.

Speaking The Independent, Hawaiian Airlines also expressed that “staffing on the ramp at JFK affected its ability to retrieve guest luggage from the aircraft”.

White also claimed to PIX 11 that the only compensation that he and his fellow passengers received for the extensive wait time was a $12 voucher for food at the airport. White went on to accuse the airline of ultimately ruining a “vacation” for the hundreds of travellers on the flight.

“This is supposed to be Hawaiian Airlines. They are supposed to get us to the land of aloha,” he said.  “Instead people have lost wages, income, and vacation time. I was sitting next to a family whose daughter was in tears. Their experience has been ruined.”

While the company didn’t specify how much the vouchers were for, Hawaiian Airlines told The Independent that travellers were “offered meal vouchers and a $1000.00 travel credit”.

Hawaiian Airlines confirmed that the flight, which was scheduled to leave at 10am on Tuesday ended up departing on Wednesday at 6:14pm. The plane arrived in Honolulu at 10:54pm.

According to the airline’s “Domestic Contract of Carriage” policy, passengers will be provided with one meal voucher when there are flight delays of over three hours. If flights are delayed for more than three hours – between the hours of 10pm to 6am – and there is no alternative transport to the destination, passengers will be provided with accommodation for one night.

The airline also shared that when flights are delayed, passengers can either receive a refund or can travel with a different carrier.

“We will transport you, subject to availability and without stopover, to your destination, next stopover point, or transfer point shown on our portion of your ticket, in the same class of service, at no additional cost to you,” Hawaiian Airlines added.