Passengers were stuck on a Qatar Airways Boeing 777 for three hours with no air conditioning during the Athens heatwave.
Information has been released pertinent to this incident, which we will get into in this article.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Qatar Airways Flight QR204 – Athens to Doha…
Qatar Airways flight QR204, which was involved in the incident during the Athens Heatwave, is a routine scheduled flight between Athens and Doha.
Furthermore, the aircraft involved in this incident is A7-BAH.
As per data from Planespotters.net, A7-BAH is a 14.3 year old Boeing 777-300ER that was delivered to the airline in February 2010.
Of the 777-300ER variant, Qatar Airways has 57 of them in their fleet.
Furthermore, of that 57, all but one are in active service, with an average fleet age of 11.1 years.
Within the QR fleet, they have the following aircraft:
- 29 Airbus A320 Family aircraft.
- 10 Airbus A330 Family aircraft.
- 58 Airbus A350 Family aircraft.
- 8 Airbus A380s.
- 9 Boeing 737 MAX 8s.
- 92 Boeing 777 Family aircraft.
- 48 Boeing 787 Family aircraft.
During the deboarding and boarding processes of Qatar Airways flight QR204 Athens-Doha, the aircraft suffered a technical issue.
Furthermore, this resulted in passengers being stuck on the Boeing 777 for three hours.
It is understood that the airport had fire crews by the aircraft due to smoke being seen from the aircraft.
One of the passengers on Instagram detailed their experience.
It is understood that the doors were closed for 3.5 hours with no air cooling and zero sustenance.
Furthermore, he reported that passengers were passing out and that despite being given water, this wasn’t enough.
QR204 was eventually able to depart from Athens during the heatwave at 1527 local time on June 11 and landed into Doha at 1926 local time.
Airline Releases Statement…
As per The Independent, Qatar Airways released a statement following the incident on QR204 during the Athens heatwave:
“Qatar Airways sincerely apologises for the delay to passengers travelling on flight QR204 from Athens (ATH) to Doha (DOH) on Monday, 10 June 2024, which was due to a technical issue”.
“As a result, all passengers were asked to disembark the aircraft and were supported by our staff at Athens International Airport while ground maintenance teams worked to resolve the issue.”
“The flight later departed from ATH, arriving in DOH at 10.39 local time on Tuesday 11 June 2024, where we extended our full support to all affected passengers upon arrival to ensure smooth onward connections to their final destination.”
“We regard the safety and comfort of our passengers and crew as our highest priority at all times, and have offered our apologies to each passenger affected by this unforeseen disruption and the inconvenience caused.”
Overall: Better Planning Needed?
It remains clear in this regard that better planning was needed to cater to the Athens heatwave by Qatar Airways.
Despite the technical issue, it would have been easier to deboard everyone so then they are in an air-conditioned environment.
The heatwave has of course not helped things, where the Greek city has been experiencing temperatures exceeding 40’c.
Looking ahead, all eyes will be on what additional disruption this will cause to airports across Greece.
It will be interesting to see whether the airline will instigate an investigation following this particular incident.
As soon as we have more information pertinent to this, then we will update you accordingly at the bottom of the article.
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