Passengers Demand — and Get — Plane Change

The passengers onboard a new Air Berlin Boeing 737-800, like the one pictured here, successfully petitioned to have their plane changed when a malfunctioning flap gauge twice prevented it from departing for Faro, Portugal. Credit: Air Berlin

BERLIN (AP) — Anxious passengers on a flight to Portugal successfully petitioned Germany's Air Berlin to change their plane after a technical problem prompted the pilot to scrap two attempts to take off, the airline said Monday.

The plane — a new Boeing 737-800 — was scheduled to take off from Nuremberg for Faro in the early hours of Sunday, but the pilot saw as it prepared to depart that there was a problem with a gauge in the cockpit related to the aircraft's landing flaps.

He asked the 172 passengers to disembark. Two decided not to take the flight; airline spokeswoman Alexandra Mueller said the other 170 boarded again, but the same technical problem arose as the plane prepared to depart a second time.

The passengers then signed a petition calling for a replacement aircraft. That plane had to be brought in from Antalya, Turkey — meaning that the flight took off nearly 14 hours late.

Mueller said the incident showed that "passengers are reacting very sensitively to every kind of technical defect at the moment," following recent deadly crashes in Spain and Russia.

The technical defect on the Boeing was fixed Sunday and the aircraft returned to service — on a different route.

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