Passengers ‘Roasted’ in 117°F Heat After British Airways Jet Stuck on Dubai Tarmac for Hours

Passengers onboard a British Airways plane at Dubai International Airport were left sweltering in 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 degrees Fahrenheit) heat after the system to operate the cabin air conditioning system stopped working while the flight experienced a lengthy delay on the tarmac.

The uncomfortable experience, which left passengers feeling like they were going to pass out, occurred on Saturday as British Airways flight BA104 was preparing to fly from Dubai for its seven-hour journey back to London Heathrow.

Passengers boarded the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on time, but once they were onboard, they quickly discovered that the Dubai summer heat was taking its toll on the environment inside the cabin.

One of the passengers on the May 24 flight, Jacqueline Stringer, says the Captain soon made an announcement, apologizing for the heat and explaining that the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) that would provide power to the plane on the ground before the two main engines are fired up was not working.

A broken APU is not necessarily a big problem, as various ground equipment can be used to provide power to the plane before pushback.

Once the two main engines were running, the air conditioning system would soon power up, and the temperature in the cabin would come back down to something a lot more comfortable.

“Babies were having to be stripped to their nappies to try and cool them down.”

Jacqueline Stringer – passenger on British Airways flight BA104

But that’s now how things turned out. Jacqueline says in a post on a Facebook page dedicated to complaints about British Airways that after everyone had boarded, the plane pushed back from the gate and started to taxi to the departure runway as normal before it suddenly came to a halt.

Apparently, a warning light had come on in the cockpit, and engineers would have to come to the plane to clear the warning before the plane could continue on its way.

By this point, however, the stand that the plane had been parked at was already occupied by another aircraft, so BA104 was directed to an isolated cargo area.

“We baked inside the plane for 2 hours as engineers worked on the flight deck,” Jacqueline explained. “The plane got hotter and hotter and recorded 47 degrees.”

Flight attendants handed out one cup of water each to the passengers during this time, but, according to Jacqueline, when someone asked for more water, this request was turned down by the flight attendants because they, too, were too hot and feared passing out if they continued moving up and down the aisles.

“I have high blood pressure and was so ill on this flight with the heat and stress,” Jacqueline continued. “Babies were having to be stripped to their nappies to try and cool them down.”

Jacqueline asked the Facebook group for advice on how to make a complaint to British Airways and was bizarrely met with derision by some commentators who told her just to be thankful that the plane departed at all.

In a statement, a spokesperson for British Airways said that Flight 104 on May 24 did have to return to stand due to a technical issue and that the plane was later cleared to fly.

A spokesperson added: “We thank our customers for their patience while we resolved a technical issue with the aircraft.”

Matt’s take – there’s no easy solution to this problem

This was no doubt an unpleasant experience for everyone on that plane, including the crew, who had to try to continue working in their uniforms while experiencing the same sweltering heat as everyone else.

Some of the commentators on Jacqueline’s post are partially right–an APU failure is not that uncommon and can affect any airline. So, too, are technical snags that might necessitate a ground delay with passengers onboard the plane.

Unfortunately, the logistics of deplaning everyone while the problem is fixed and then reboarding an entire plane is anything but simple, and perhaps unsurprisingly, this is something that airlines loathe doing if they can help it.

That being said, you have to wonder whether, at some point, health and safety considerations should take precedence and the airline incurs the additional delay and expense.

Whatever the case, it would seem reasonable for British Airways to proactively reach out to everyone on that plane to offer them a gesture of goodwill.