Technical issues are no strange matter in the aviation industry. Such issues can happen to even the very best of airlines, a case that is illustrated today.

On Wednesday, passengers traveling onboard a Singapore Airlines flight from Shanghai to Singapore suffered a major setback. Their flight experienced a technical delay that kept the aircraft stranded on the ground for nearly eight hours.

Technical Difficulties

Singapore Airlines Flight SQ-833 is a regularly scheduled flight from Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, China (PVG) to Changi International Airport in Singapore (SIN). The service is operated daily by the Airbus A380.

SQ-833 has a scheduled departure time of 4:50 p.m. local time and a scheduled arrival of 10:20 p.m. in Singapore. The flight typically lasts around four and a half to five hours.

On Wednesday, September 6th, SQ-833 experienced an unexpected technical fault ahead of its scheduled 4:50 p.m. departure. The aircraft, an 11-year-old A380 registered 9V-SKT, had arrived without issue at 3:05 pm local time as SQ-830 inbound from Singapore.

Passenger reports note that the flight had already reached the runway and had commenced its takeoff roll. However, the takeoff roll was suddenly aborted as the plane had experienced a technical fault.

Upon experiencing the issue, the A380 returned to its original departure gate and remained there for over eight hours as engineers tried to diagnose the problem.

While the plane was parked at the gate, passengers were not allowed to leave the aircraft. The doors remained closed, the jetways were not attached and reports state that due to "safety reasons", the ground power had to be disabled while the issue was being resolved.

Singapore Airlines provided the passengers with meals and refreshments during the extended halt. However, passengers report that the aircraft became very hot while they were stranded. 

Videos surfacing from the ordeal show passengers fanning themselves with safety cards while other reports note that some passengers started to feel faint. This can be attributed to the ground power being cut while the A380's issue was being resolved.

The reason for keeping the passengers onboard the flight was because Singapore Airlines was under the impression that the fault would be resolved quickly. Keeping everyone onboard would allow for a quicker departure rather than having everyone go through boarding formalities once again. Unfortunately, this would not be the case.

The problem took a long time to be rectified, so much so that SQ-833 was ultimately canceled that night.

Passengers finally disembarked from the aircraft at 12:30 a.m. local time, over eight hours since they had boarded the plane intending to fly to Singapore that day.

The reason for keeping the passengers onboard the flight was because Singapore Airlines was under the impression that the fault would be resolved quickly. Keeping everyone onboard would allow for a quicker departure rather than having everyone go through boarding formalities once again. Unfortunately, this would not be the case.

Singapore Airlines provided all passengers with hotel accommodations for the night. Furthermore, all passengers were rebooked on other flights out of Shanghai.

The aircraft itself, 9V-SKT, had its issue resolved that night. It was ferried back to Singapore empty as SQ-9833. The plane departed just after 3:00 a.m., arriving home just before 8:00 a.m.

Backlash

Singapore Airlines has long been regarded as one of the world's leading airlines. Unfortunately, the carrier has come under fire for how it handled the situation.

Singapore Airlines had admitted that it could have addressed the situation better. A representative of the airline released the following statement:

“The aircraft returned to the bay, and engineers were brought on-site to rectify the issue. To facilitate a quicker departure, passengers were asked to stay onboard in the event the engineers could resolve the technical issues. We recognize that the customers could have been allowed to leave the aircraft earlier. Singapore Airlines apologizes to the affected customers for this, and we will review our procedures to avoid a recurrence.”

This situation highlights the fact that even the best of the best can experience the worst days. These technical fault instances are nothing new to aviation and can happen to anyone.

Have you experienced a similar instance onboard a flight? How was it handled and how do you think airlines could do better to address such situations?