As one of those pilots who has left the gate and then sat for a few hours I will tell you my reasoning behind doing that.
Here's the scenario: You are flying from Phoenix to Washington Dulles on APS Airways Flight 1911. Your scheduled departure time is 9:00am PHX with a schedule arrival time into IAD of 3:00pm; a four hour flight.
Due to a snow storm in Washington (IAD) your flight is delayed in PHX. The FAA has issued a EDCT (Expect Departure Clearance Time - basically a time when your flight is allowed to takeoff from PHX) of 11:00am in PHX. That means that your flight will be allowed to depart PHX from 10:55am to 11:05am. The FAA allows a five minute window on either side of the EDCT. If the pilots don't get the plane to the runway to depart during that window, then they have to get back in line. That's very important.
So, the airline knows that your flight is running two hours late. APS Airlines has a few options now:
1. Cancel the flight. That will piss-off just about everyone, but sometimes it is the best option to prevent the domino effect of causing further delays somewhere else. The airline will reroute you or put you on another flight if possible.
2. Have the customers wait at the gate, off of the plane, until closer to departure time. That is probably the most comfortable option. But if the plane is at the gate, then it is not in line for takeoff. If the pilots miscalculate how long it will take to get to the runway, then they will miss their "wheels-up" time. The flight will then be put back into the line. It could be a five minute of five hour mistake.
3. Load all of the customers onto the plane, leave the gate, and wait for the takeoff time. Benefits: it puts the plane in line for takeoff. If the "wheels-up" time is changed to an earlier time, then the plane is in position to leave sooner. Also, leaving the gate frees-up the gate to be used by other planes. Just because your flight is late doesn't mean that other flights are late. Your gate is needed by other planes. Downsides: You're stuck in that plane for an extra two hours. You don't have access to all the amenities of the airport. You're gonna get really mad at APS Airlines for confining you to that tin can; you may actually demand a refund or travel voucher or some other form of compensation. The crew (pilots and flight attendants) have a limited amount of time that they can be on duty; this time sitting in line is eating into the crew's time limits. You may have to go back to the gate to get more gas.
So, the job and responsibility for the crew and APS Airlines is to find a balance. They want to get the customers to IAD safely, but they have many legal hurdles to jump first.
After much gnashing of teeth the decision is made to board the customers, push-off of the gate, and wait in line for takeoff. At 9:30 your flight leaves the gate and taxis to a waiting area where the captain shuts down the engines to save fuel. You have been told by the captain and the gate agents that your flight will takeoff at 11:00. At 10:30 the captain makes an announcement that your takeoff time has been pushed back by the FAA. Your new time is 11:45. Now, many things are happening. Customers are getting mad. The crew is watching the time to determine if they will be legal to make the flight. The pilots and the APS Airline dispatchers are watching the weather in IAD. If the weather gets worse, or gets more widespread, then the flight might need more fuel to make the trip.
At 11:30, 15 minutes before the latest takeoff time, the pilots start the engines and taxi to the runway. At 11:40 the PHX control tower tells the flight that, once again, their departure time is delayed. Only 20 minutes from now. So the pilots elect to leave the engines running to be ready to go. At 12:00, the latest expected departure time, the pilots are informed that due to a disable aircraft in IAD, their wheels-up time is now 1:00pm. The captain makes an announcement to the customers telling them the latest bad news. Several customers are very upset and want off of the plane. APS Airways dispatch calls the captain to tell him that, based on the newest weather forecast, the flight will need to return to the gate to get more gas. The captain tells the customers. Some are happy to get off of the damn plane. Some are even more angry about the continued delay.
The plane starts heading back to the gate, but a gate is not currently available because it is rush hour at PHX. The captain is told that there will be a 20 minute wait for a gate. So, now the time is 12:30. You have been on the plane for three hours and are still in PHX. The plane gets to the gate; some people get off the plane, most stay on. The plane is refueled. At 12:50, only 10 minutes before the latest takeoff time, the plane leaves the gate headed for the runway. Hurray, you make the departure time and are airborne at 1:05 PHX time.
Now, you have a four hour flight ahead of you, but at least you're out of PHX and headed home. The weather continues to be crappy in IAD. During the flight, Air Traffic Control - ATC (some controller with initials JJ
) tells the pilots that they will have to hold for about 30 minutes before they can land in IAD. There are many other planes in the air headed to IAD and APS Flight 1911 is last in line. Finally, you land in IAD at 7:45pm. As you look at the window you notice that the skies are mostly clear, and the runways and taxiways are well plowed, but there are airplanes all over the place. You've been on the plane for over 8 hours and very happy to be done with the flight.
Remember all those planes that you saw on the ground and all those planes the the captain told you were ahead of you in the holding patterns? Well, now they are ahead of you on the ground, too. You're gonna have a long wait for the gate. The plane's bathrooms were last serviced 8 hours ago; the toilets are full. All of the water has been drunk, and all of the good snacks are gone. You can't eat and you can't drink anything because there toilets are full. Now what?
No matter how wonderful, informative, and caring the pilots and flight attendants have been over the last 9 hours, nothing can make you happy. Nothing can make-up for your awful flight.
Who is responsible? Absolutely no one. The ATC guys did everything they could. The pilots and FAs did all they could. APS Airlines did all they could. But no one can control the weather or the turn-of-events which conspired to ruin your day.
That is really how it happens, folks. I've had several similar flights. I spent a wonderful 4 hours on the plane in Syracuse, NY trying to get to JFK. It's only a 50 minut flight, but we arrived over 5 hours late.
Sometimes you just can't win.
