When a plane crashes, what do the airlines put on the "Arrival" board in the terminal?

July 2, 2004 12:34 PM

When a plane crashes, what do the airlines put on the "Arrival" board in the terminal? I would assume they start with "delayed," but I have no idea what they would change that to once it's verified the plane is never going to land at that airport.
posted by headspace to society & culture (15 comments total)

"See Agent", I think.
posted by crunchburger at 12:40 PM on July 2, 2004

"p0wn3d"?
posted by falconred at 12:52 PM on July 2, 2004

They'd probly just take it off the board and make some announcement over the PA.
posted by signal at 1:02 PM on July 2, 2004

For some reason I thought I knew the answer, but I can't work out why.. perhaps I saw it in a movie. Either way, I think the answer is that the listing is removed.
posted by wackybrit at 1:03 PM on July 2, 2004

i also thought it was "see agent" or "go to desk"
posted by amberglow at 2:13 PM on July 2, 2004

No one is really thinking about that detail at that time, I hope.
posted by agregoli at 2:15 PM on July 2, 2004

I'm pretty sure I've seen "Cancelled" for planes that are permanently delayed at Pearson Inernational (I hate that airport, parking authorities are higher-than-average in the asshole department). Have a look here. I thought it was "Unavailable", but I appear to be incorrect. Manchester appears to do the same.

I assume they'd probably use the same word for anything that won't be coming in for one reason or another. "See Agent" would get people scared that some form of terrorist or other unwanted is attempting to get on the plane, and they want to double check you.
posted by shepd at 2:28 PM on July 2, 2004

When trains derail or run people over, the Amtrak train status page goes into "PLEASE CALL 1-800-USA-RAIL FOR TRAIN STATUS" mode (which is the equivalent to "SEE AGENT").
posted by calwatch at 3:01 PM on July 2, 2004

Thank you all so much! I have a script due tomorrow, and it would have been sent in last night for first read, except I couldn't Google this particular answer out of the internet, and I really needed to know! My plane is now p0wn3d. (Heh, just kidding!)
posted by headspace at 3:34 PM on July 2, 2004

I have a call into my friend who worked at the airlines (she left there awhile ago) but I seem to recall that they had to "see agent" as well.

To me, the most interesting part is what happens after the plane goes down (ok, that sounds maudlin but it's not meant to be).

Once the tragedy is known, a whole crisis mechanism goes into place that really is amazing to imagine. People who take tickets and push paper most days are suddenly called upon to perform unimaginable tasks like take calls from frightened family members. Some of them did this even though they had family members on one of the planes that went down.

I have been told that the 9/11 tragedies were especially confusing for the airlines because an airline involved only had ONE grief team (many folks who work at airlines also "other" job when bad things happen). They were assembling their team when it became apparent they needed two teams.

Maybe someday someone will write their story. The courage and fortitude of some of those employees made me like people a little more.
posted by answergrape at 4:21 PM on July 2, 2004

Landed?
posted by dg at 7:59 PM on July 2, 2004

Hope you worked a mention of MetaFilter into that script, headspace. Seems only fair. ;)
posted by kindall at 8:21 PM on July 2, 2004

Never?...
posted by punishinglemur at 9:45 PM on July 2, 2004

"See Agent" is right. Scroll halfway down for the pic.
posted by PrinceValium at 6:41 AM on July 3, 2004

Ooh, thanks for the visual confirmation, PrinceValium! And Kindall, there are shout outs to MeFites in most of my scripts- it's a great place to find a name when I can't come up with one on my own. *grin*
posted by headspace at 8:49 AM on July 3, 2004