Unscheduled Southwest Airlines Stopover In Wichita To Drop Off a Flight Attendant

(CTN News) – A Southwest Airlines flight from Dallas to Kansas City made an unscheduled, impromptu stopover in Wichita on Friday morning in order for passengers to drop off a flight attendant who was needed on another flight for the rest of the day.

WN-872, Southwest Airlines flight WN-872, was scheduled to depart Dallas Love Field at around 7:30 am on Friday, but instead of a one-hour flight north to Kansas City, the flight ended up in Wichita so that a single flight attendant could deplane.

It wasn’t until the flight attendant had been dropped off that the 17-year-old Boeing 737 was able to make its way to Kansas City, where passengers arrived just over an hour after they had been scheduled to arrive.

A Southwest Airlines spokesperson explained to me what happened to Gary Leff, who was with View from the Wing, saying that a flight was scheduled to operate out of Wichita on Friday morning, but came up short due to the lack of a flight attendant that was part of the minimum crewing requirement.

The only flight Southwest had that morning that specifically flew into Wichita was not a direct flight, and since Southwest Airlines didn’t have a crew in the local area, the only option was to drop off a flight attendant that was referred to as a deadheading flight attendant.

Southwest Airlines decided that the unscheduled stopover on the flight from Dallas to Kansas City would cause the least disruption as a result of the unscheduled stopover in this case.

Earlier this month, British holiday airline TUI Airways sent passengers on a four-hour diversion in order to drop off a spare part for an aircraft which was stranded in Tunisia due to a technical problem that caused the aircraft to be stranded.

As the spare part had been transported from the UK to Calabria in Southern Italy, a stopover in Tunisia was required before returning to the UK, since the spare part had been transported from the UK.

According to European and British air passenger regulations, TUI offered passengers on the delayed flight free refreshments and confirmed that they were eligible to receive compensation as a result of the delay.

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