Do planes ever stop to refuel but dont let people off if so what happens.?

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richard_beckham2001

We had to stop to refuel when we came back from Greece. Everybody as to get off the plane and wait in the departure lounge.

IceTrojan

Yes, these "technical stops" do occur, and a couple of situations arise when this happens.

1) Unscheduled. Sometimes you can't plan for delays or headwinds, so you have to stop along the way for more fuel than you had planned on using.

2) Scheduled. An airline wants to advertise service between two cities, but they don't have planes that can reach, so they schedule a fuel stop for a quick top off before heading out.

People generally are NOT let off the plane in the above situations. I know there was a Korean Air flight from JFK to ICN-Seoul, which stopped in Anchorage at 2-3am to pick up/drop off cargo (and they couldn't pick up/drop off passengers, since foreign carriers are not allowed to run domestic service). I've also heard of situations where a plane makes an unplanned stop to pick up passengers along the way, whose flight have been canceled (e.g., an OAK-SEA flight is canceled, so they reroute an LAX-SEA flight to OAK to pick up those passengers, and continue on).

bu11d09

We were flying Jetblue to san francisco and apparently the plane was too heavy. They took fuel out, flew us to Saltlake City Utah and re-fueled there. We never left the plane to de(?) fuel or re-fuel. Our lives might have been in danger, but we had cool little tv sets to watch!

Stephen L

Yes, everyone has to get off, but you go into a "transit lounge", which is the "other" side of the customs point, so - legally - isn't actually in the country you are "in" - very weird!

lance d

The plane stopped in Montreal on my way to Toronto for 30mins,about five people got off and three people got on.Then the scraped the wings as the were covered in ice,it was mid winter and all you could see was a pure blanket of snow,it was very pretty looking.Kept my fingers crossed that it was a little warmer in Toronto,lets say I wasnt exactly dressed for such extremes.

Leafy

It depends on the country you are flying to, the airport's provisions, and the government's restrictions.

For example, if you fly to Australia via either Singapore or Thailand, you *have* to get off the plane when it stops, but then I think it stops for about 3hrs. There are transit lounges.

However, when I flew to Argentina, the plane stopped in Brazil on the way. We couldn't get off the plane because we couldn't legally land and they didn't seem to have a transit lounge. The passengers going as far as Brazil got off, cleaners got on and did what could only loosely be termed 'cleaning' of the aircraft, then the passengers going from Brazil to Argentina got on and off we went. During the stop - which was only 1h20m - the rear door was left open but with a barrier across it and a crew member positioned there to stop people trying to, er, enter Brazil illegally by jumping off the plane. We would have loved to have got off the plane but to be honest I was more interested in spending as little time in Brazil and just getting to Argentina as soon as possible - for an indication of the flight duration, the total thing, including the stop in Brazil, was about 16hrs.

Dotty

I've been on a plane that refuelled in Rwanda, I think it was, but we didn't get off the plane.

hec

Air India flies from Newark to Mumbai via Paris. People who fly to Paris only leave the plane, but all other passengers remain on the plane. Air conditioning is turned off, so it gets very hot there.

Older&Wiser

Yes, I've sat on the tarmac in Singapore before now.

Jay90

Planes do refuel but in most cases the big airlines may never let you off the plane.

t k

Yes - most airlines have had to make stops to put on additional fuel at some time or another. These are usually unscheduled stops and can be very costly to the airline itself. If it is an unscheduled stop passengers will most likely be kept on the plane to help reduce these costs - if they deplane the passengers they are billed for every passengers that comes down the jet way.

cherub

As far as I know, when planes are refuelling, all passengers are obliged to get off for safety and security reasons.

toon_tigger

You always have to get off when they refuel

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