What happened to the VS4 this morning?

At JFK last night I watched the VS4 leave the gate more or less on time. There were terrible airfield delays because of poor weather -- we were told to expect 90 minutes of taxiing. I was on the 46 and we pushed back on schedule and then had a long wait in the queue of departing aircraft.

As we took off, we raced past another VS aircraft which was queueing to take off. It can only have been the 4 but it seems odd that we would or could have overtaken it -- after all, it left the gate an hour before us and must therefore have been taxiing for around 2 hours! I see that it did indeed land at LHR 30 minutes after the 46.

I assumed that aircraft would be allocated takeoff slots roughly in order from when they departed from the gate. Is this incorrect, or did something else happen to delay that flight?

Welcome to JFK and taxiing delays at peak traffic time ... two hours is not unusual.

What could have happened is that the VS4 was in a long queue for one runway, then operations changed to another, and you were then 'ahead' of them.

Just think though how much fuel must have been consumed by all the planes waiting ...

I was on the last one out the same night - the VS10. We had around a 30 min taxi delay.

The aircraft cabin was very warm inside, but cooled after taxiing started.

Found out the reason for that on arrival at Heathrow as we were told there would be a delay in turning off the seat belt sign as the engines would run for a period longer than usual as the APU wasn't working on this aircraft (Soul Sister).

I guess this explains no air con when it was waiting at the gate, though I thought they had ground power for that.

Soul Sister did the Chelsea FC run, wonder if the temperature was correct for them, or did they bust the control!!!

Maybe John Terry kneed it in the back?

Must have been about 5 years ago when I landed into JFK on VS9. It took us 2hrs to get from landing to gate. This was all due to taxiway change and staff shift change in the control tower etc.

I was sitting at the back of the bus so effectively almost last in the immigration queue. The next plane load of passengers added to the queue and I spoke to them to find that they just came off a VS flight possibly VS45 that left LHR 2hrs after my VS9.

So it is quite normal to have a very long wait and taxi at JFK. This is also why some people avoid JFK and fly into and out of EWR instead.

Soul Sister did the Chelsea FC run, wonder if the temperature was correct for them, or did they bust the control!!!

LOL not sure- but as soon as the engines started the temperature got a lot better very quickly. There was a lot of noise as the engines started - myabe an external generator was providing power with the auxilliary power unit not working.

Welcome to JFK and taxiing delays at peak traffic time ... two hours is not unusual.

What could have happened is that the VS4 was in a long queue for one runway, then operations changed to another, and you were then 'ahead' of them.

Ah, OK -- interesting. Hadn't thought of that! It wasn't the delay that bothered me, it was the way we leapfrogged a flight that had left such a long time before us.

[honey lamb]

It wasn't the delay that bothered me, it was the way we leapfrogged a flight that had left such a long time before us.

That can happen frequently in the US. A friend of mine who regularly flies out of either DCA or IAD (and I mean weekly) often reports that his flight has pushed back on time but then they go and sit in the "penalty box". This means that the flight has "left" on time for statistical purposes but the reality is that they are stuck there. He has also reported that at times he has taken an earlier flight at the airport to the one he has originally booked but that the later one has gone out first.

at times he has taken an earlier flight at the airport to the one he has originally booked but that the later one has gone out first.

Not unheard of with the MCO flights from LGW either ):

It wasn't the delay that bothered me, it was the way we leapfrogged a flight that had left such a long time before us.

That can happen frequently in the US. A friend of mine who regularly flies out of either DCA or IAD (and I mean weekly) often reports that his flight has pushed back on time but then they go and sit in the "penalty box". This means that the flight has "left" on time for statistical purposes but the reality is that they are stuck there. He has also reported that at times he has taken an earlier flight at the airport to the one he has originally booked but that the later one has gone out first.

This has happened to me almost everytime I've left IAD, thankfully the last few were in First on VX and we were well looked after in the 'penalty box'.