Problems Delay Vacationers’ Hawaii Flight 26 Hours

More than 300 Honolulu-bound vacationers were delayed up to 26 hours after a series of mechanical and other difficulties held up their flight on a small Los Angeles-based airline, it was learned Wednesday.

“I just can’t believe that they couldn’t put them on another plane,” said M. Newkirk, who waited overnight at Los International Airport to see her two sons off. “This was supposed to be a nice, relaxed, vacation. All (they’ve) been is stressed out for the last 36 hours.”

Ron Stevens, director of marketing for Air America, a vacation airline with a fleet of four planes, Wednesday blamed the daylong holdover of Flight 911 on “an incredible series of misadventures and misconveniences.”

Stevens said 340 passengers were originally scheduled to take off on the flight at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. But the Lockheed L-1011 returned to the gate with engine trouble. A little later, airline technicians discovered a broken fuel valve mechanism in one of the three engines.

Air America was able to find places for about 50 passengers on other airlines Tuesday afternoon.

Arrangements were made to fly a replacement fuel valve in from Chicago on a plane that was scheduled to arrive at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

When that plane actually landed, sometime between 11 and 11:30 p.m., “it took over an hour to determine” that the part was not on board, Stevens said.

Wednesday morning, Air America borrowed the missing part from another airline and scheduled a departure for 10:30 a.m.

But because of a phony bomb threat at the airport, the plane actually left its gate at 12:30 p.m. and took off about 10 minutes later.

Tom Linton, a travel agent who had booked some of the seats through his company, Island Flight Tours, said he has encountered “one or two” daylong delays during his 15 years in the travel business.

“When you have an airline that does not have a tremendous amount of equipment, a situation like this can occur,” he said.