Customers complain about Air Jamaica treatment

I WAS speaking to a friend in Florida on Friday 5/19, and she was telling me about being in Jamaica when she read in the newspaper about Air Jamaica losing an engine on Good Friday. I told her I was on the flight and she went on to tell me that the article mentioned how well Air Jamaica handled the whole thing. Well here is the truth. This is a copy of the letter I sent to Air Jamaica voicing my anger of how terrible we were treated. There were people with babies who ran out of food the babies just cried and cried for hunger. Shame, Air Jamaica.

Air Jamaica

Customer Relations Manager,

We were on Flight 017 on Good Friday April 21, 2000 returning home from a funeral we had attended in Jamaica. The arrival time at John F. Kennedy airport in New York was 6:50 PM. There was a thunder storm, and the pilot announced that due to the weather the airport was closed and we were detoured to Baltimore Airport in Maryland. When we arrived in Baltimore the pilot announced again that we might be in Baltimore indefinitely, and he could not wait around as he has been on duty all day. I believe that statement was inappropriate, we did not need to hear that as he should have taken it up with his superiors.

Trouble

After waiting in Baltimore for approximately ninety minutes, the pilot again announced that John F. Kennedy airport has reopened and therefore we are returning there. The plane was refuelled and we were on our way. The plane sounded and felt different and fuel and smoke was smelt in the cabin, at this time we sensed trouble and we started to cry and pray as we saw the Flight Attendants looking nervous, and suddenly busy walking up and down the aisles at a fast pace.

The pilot announced that an engine was gone and he would have to return to Baltimore Airport to do an emergency landing. Now panic was all around us, and people was crying and praying aloud. The Flight Attendants taught us the emergency routine and it was quickly implemented by all the passengers. The plane landed safely.

We were told by the pilot that we would have to get off the plane, process through immigration and customs, and Air Jamaica would provide buses to transport us back to New York. After these processes we were directed upstairs to the Air Jamaica check-in counter. At this point we were so traumatised we were afraid to get on another plane, so the bus was a great idea. An airport or Air Jamaica representative (a young man), announced to us that we had no choice but to get on another Air Jamaica plane that was coming out of Newark New Jersey airport, as there were no buses to take us to New York, and if we do not want to get on the plane Air Jamaica was providing, we could find other means of transportation and take it up with Air Jamaica at a later date.

Rude

Now that was very unprofessional and downright rude, we are paying passengers, and did not deserve that kind of treatment, we deserved better customer relations. The Flight crew had left us in Baltimore before seeing to our needs. "A captain should make sure his passengers are all right before jumping ship." Then to make it worse, Air Jamaica did not offer us a "glass of water", whatever food we had prepared for infants on the flight, was finished by this time and we were all hungry. Where was the warm Jamaican hospitality that Air Jamaica advertises!

We sat at the Baltimore airport for over five hours with no communication from anyone after we re-checked in. A plane was finally sent for us at approximately 2:30a.m. at which time we were cold, exhausted and famished and had no money as we had spent all we had in Jamaica.

Our family back in New York was notified to go to different terminals as the arrival information kept changing on the monitors. We were unable to make contact with them as we did not have our cell phones, calling card or enough coins to make a long distance call. They were going out of their minds as they were not sure what had happened to us.

We want to continue to make Air Jamaica our first choice when we travel to the Caribbean, but we regret to say the terrible way we were treated by our own carrier is shameful and has left a bad taste in our mouths.

I am, etc.,

SANDRA MASSEY

E-mail: Massesa@Yahoo.com

Sandra Thorbourne

- Massey (Daughter)

Norma Brown (Mother)

Brianna Massey (Infant)

353 Warwick Avenue

Mt. Vernon, New York

Via Go-Jamaica