Nightmare On The Runway As Plane Gets Delayed For Hours

When you need to book a flight, you usually go for an airline you trust. Maybe one you've flown before and didn't have any major issues with. Often people will pay a little more for such peace of mind.

On the other hand, those of us who buy tickets on the cheap know that we can't really complain when something goes wrong in the tin can we chose to fly in. But when you pay for a ticket on a flight like Delta Airlines, you expect things to go smoothly. Well, that's not what happened for passengers on Delta flight 555 in Las Vegas yesterday.

The flight, which was bound for Atlanta, was delayed for over four hours on the runway at Harry Reid International Airport. While stuck on the tarmac, the temperatures gradually increased inside the cabin. Local weather apps show it was about 110 outside at 1:40pm, when the flight was scheduled to depart. The temperature inside the cabin rose to 111 degrees.

One passenger, Krista Garvin, gave an account of what she saw during this hellish four hours on board. She said that after two hours of the delay is when people started to get visibly ill, fox5vegas.com reported. Which included people looking faint, passing out, or throwing up on board. Garvin also reported that there were multiple first responders outside the plane, including ambulances and fire trucks.

Harry Reid airport gave a statement about the event, only confirming the arrival of first responders. They didn't give any explanation for the plane delay or the lack of temperature control inside, fox5vegas.com reported.

According to the same report, the airline gave passengers the opportunity to get off the plane, but warned them that there wouldn't be another flight out to Atlanta for several days. After four hours of delay, Delta finally evacuated the passengers, some on stretchers. The airline offered a flight the following morning, but it ended up canceled as well.

As if we weren't already aware of the germs, and just general yuck, on airplanes, the Covid virus made us even more aware.

Trying to stay healthy on flights has always been an issue for travelers. We're not only keeping Purell in our carry-on bags now, but we're disinfecting every other area on the plane from potential germs!

According to flight attendants, and Travel and Leisure magazine, there's one thing that most travelers often ignore: the seat-back pocket.

A Reddit user and long-haul flight attendant, posted on an r/AskReddit thread about some of most germ filled places you can find on an airplane. “I ALWAYS recommend you never, ever, ever, EVER use or put anything in the seat pocket."

They are cleared of trash, but are never 'cleaned',” the user wrote. Eww.

They went on to talk about the numerous gross things cleaning crews have found while clearing the plane: dirty tissues, air sickness bags (not empty ones), underwear socks, chewed gum, half sucked candy, apple cores, orange peels... The list goes on and on.

Think about it for a minute: A passenger is hacking into a wad of tissues and instead of immediately throwing them out - because they're in the window seat, and don't want to get out -  they just shove them in the seat-back pocket. It’s very common, and we've all done it.

Not only is it disgusting, but your feet swell while flying, so it's going to be harder to put them back on while everyone is trying desperately to just get off the plane, and get home, or start their vacations.

redonion1515 via Getty Images

Check your carry on bag's dimensions at home and make sure they adhere to your airline's limits. Remember, European carriers' limits vary slightly from those in the U.S.  Blame it on the metric system that we were supposed to learn the one Tuesday, 40 years ago, but never did.

Even on next-gen jets like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350, cabin humidity levels rarely top 20% (and are only around 8-10% on conventional aircraft). To avoid looking like a prune after your flight, pack a light moisturizer and apply it frequently.

Preferable only on longer flights, and only after food has been served (if there is food on your flight), so the person behind you can eat comfortably.

Stewart Sutton via Getty Images

If you're in the middle seat, flight attendants say YOU get both armrests. I mean, that's the least you can do, aisle and window people!

- Wendy Rush, 96.3 KKLZ

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