[4K] 11 HOURS WAITING FOR A GATE! VANCOUVER AIRPORT MELTDOWN | Air Canada AC1055 | Boeing 737-8 MAX

On Monday 20th December 2022, Vancouver Airport experienced a severe weather event, the likes of which have not been seen for several years. Heavy snowfall led to a complete ground stop of all arriving and departing flights, but not before a number of inbound flights had already touched down.
The overwhelmed airport authority, and its subsequent operational meltdown, led to passengers being stranded on aircraft for over 11 hours - unable to access a gate or airstairs.
This video is an account of Air Canada flight AC1055, from Phoenix to Vancouver. Snow the previous day had already led to a 5hr departure delay from Phoenix, giving us a touchdown time of 10:07pm in Vancouver. It wasn't until 8:47am the next day that we finally were able to deplane through gate E73.
While severe weather cannot be blamed on anything but nature itself, preparation and contingency plans should have been in place to avoid a situation like this. At the time of publishing, Vancouver Airport Authority has committed to a review of its systems and procedures with the help of an external auditor.
I would like to thank the Air Canada crew of AC1055, along with the ground staff and maintenance staff who worked through treacherous conditions throughout the night. Our crew had a block time of over 20hours, and yet continued to uphold themselves professionally and diligently while keeping the passengers warm and comfortable.
Canada's recently ammended Tarmac Delay legislation provides for $1,000 compensation to passengers for delays over 10 hours. While this delay could be argued to be for 'safety reasons', Air Canada swiftly distributed credit to passengers within days of the incident.
Airline: Air Canada
Aircraft: Boeing 737-8 MAX
Registration: C-FSOC
/ iflyeraviation
#yvr
#stowstorm
#aircanada

[@Andy1076]

I had family waiting across the pond to return home but they couldn't because of what happened here at YVR, YVR's inability to handle severe weather conditions is seriously embarrasing. The biggest irony too is we sold most of our plows to Alberta! So even on the streets it was impossible to drive, was stuck on the road for 3 hours trying to get home from downtown to Burnaby. Good thing there was heat available in the plane huh?

[@iflyeraviation]

Oh no that sucks! How long were they stuck for? I had friends on the BA flight from London that got stranded for a few days. I totally get that snow events can derail operations, but being stuck 11hrs was just a joke. I watched a Singapore airlines flight land at 5am and be at their gate after 42 minutes. I took screenshots of Flightradar24 and at midnight there was a whole ton of planes waiting and by the time we taxied in we were like the last plane waiting. It’s not just YVRs meltdown, but AC prioritized other flights over ours. Presumably animals in the hold or babies onboard or something. Still - why couldn’t they send stairs when that’s what Flair and Westjet did? I’d heard the roads were a mess that morning too!

[@TerminalBAviation]

That must have been awful, especially for the flight crew. Keep up the good work with the videos!

[@iflyeraviation]

It could have been worse, but I do feel bad for the crew! They deadheaded to YVR from Calgary at 6am, then we’re due to depart YVR to PHX at 9:30 but were delayed 5hrs. Then to have an 11hr tarmac delay after landing. Quite the day at work!

[@TerminalBAviation]

@@iflyeraviation Yeah

[@Eyob797]

11 hours waiting for a gate? Why didn't they use stairs and busses to move people from the plane to the terminal?

[@iflyeraviation]

We wish they would have! Unfortunately due to the snow the airport was overwhelmed and couldn’t bring any stairs. The snow was also too thick. Eventually, we did notice that around the time we started taxiing to the gate, the plane next to us (who was also still waiting) did manage to get some stairs out and started to disembark. They’d landed just after us and were also waiting all night to disembark