Airbus Industrie Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Security; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Company Policy; Human Factors
Waiting for the van at the hotel I was informed by another crew that the van service was running a few minutes late due to the two different hotels in Las Vegas. As our pickup time came near I called the van service and was told the van is about ten minutes from pickup...I hung up the phone and called my dispatcher for my flight and informed him that we may be about 15 to 20 late getting to the airport because of the vans. The dispatcher said he would call the airport and let them know at operations and the gate of our arrival time. When we walked down toward our departure gate; I noticed a line of passengers standing around a gate. I thought at first it was a gate next to ours...as I got closer it was apparent that it was our gate boarding and my first thought was that another crew said they would help out and board for us to expedite the departure and get out as close to departure time as we could. When I approached the agent I asked who was helping on boarding and she looked at me with a 'Deer in the headlight' look...she said; 'I thought you guys were down there'. I said you mean nobody is down there and she just kinda looked at me. As we (the crew) went down the jetway I was in disbelief of what I knew had happened. When we got on the airplane there were about 120 passengers onboard with First Class looking at us like 'where was everyone' I put my possessions in the cockpit; called operations and my dispatcher to inform them of what happened and told the First Officer to stay there and that I needed to go back into the terminal and question the agents boarding and to find out how this could have happened. I tried not to let the unboarded passengers see me upset with what was going on...I had stopped boarding when I went passed the agent at the jetway door until I could contact the supervisor on duty or station manager. I asked for the manager and was shown where he was across the terminal at another gate. The gentleman knew I was looking for him and he walked over to me; I said did you just see what happened and he said no. I informed him that the agents just boarded a plane WITHOUT any crewmembers onboard; he said your kidding. Then both of us walked back down to the airplane because I said we need to get the passengers OFF the airplane and have the airplane re-screened by security then re-board after that. While on the airplane I called operations and dispatch to let them know we were going to deplane and get a second security sweep along with a second security sheet. An announcement was made to the passenger to the fact that we needed everyone off the airplane because of a boarding error on procedures. All the passengers seemed very calm with no problems. The security team came on the airplane very quickly and completed their inspection; handed me the second security sheet and at that time I let operations and dispatch know that we were ready to re-board. It was in full agreement from dispatch; operations and myself that we had in our best knowledge secured the situation and we all agreed that it was ok to follow SOP's and board the passengers. Everyone boarding was very understanding and had no complaints at least to us onboard. I made an announcement when boarding was complete and thanked them for understanding and having patience with the boarding. I explained that a boarding compliance was not accomplished in a proper order and that we had to comply with boarding procedures as we do every flight. I believe this boarding problem occurred because the proper information about us getting to the airport may not have been properly explained to the working agents and since we now fly with so called split crews were the front end and the back end crews all do different schedules and the agents must have thought the front end crew were the only crewmembers running late. This by no means excuses them from the SOP's of checking before you board by going down to the airplane checking with the crew if they are ready. This apparently did NOT happen so boarding started. Boarding is fairly straight forward and again with the crews doing their own schedules it even makes it more important to check with the onboard crewmembers to make sure they are ready and they right amount of required crewmembers are onboard and ready. There may be a little of the 'get out on schedule' syndrome that took place and that may have put the agents in a hurry mode and proper procedures were ignored. Even if rushed...a simple entry into the computer explain why the flight boarded and left the gate late would have flagged all parties concerned the reason. Because of this get off the gate on schedule mode that we all try to adhere to we were not only late OFF the gate in Las Vegas but we also arrived LATE. I think more attention should be addressed to the agents that if a flight gets off the gate late and there is a reason that is very appropriate it has to be known that the agents are not responsible for that and no discipline will be born to the working agents. I think the culture is being set that a late flight....'Someone will pay the price'...just a mood that is noticed by most frontline employees.
Our van was 25-30 min late picking us up. Captain informed dispatch of our late van. We arrived at the airport and proceeded to our gate. Upon gate arrival I heard now boarding zone 3. I thought that was weird. Maybe the company coordinated a crew to be there. When we approached the agent she was confused. She thought we were already down there. We immediately stopped boarding and proceeded to the aircraft. The boarded passengers were in their seats and some people were loading luggage in the overhead. The captain requested a supervisor and communicated with company. I proceeded to do a thorough cockpit security search. I noticed a cabin security search completed form on the captain's side from the ramp personnel so I believe the passengers were boarded onto a secure aircraft. I continued my preflight duties while the captain handled communication with company and local manager. As I returned from my preflight the passengers had been deplaned and the ramp personnel were in the process of another cabin security search. The manager returned and said he was in communication with Dispatch and everything was satisfactory on their end and we could start the boarding process over. Captain communicated with dispatch and we checked with the Flight Attendants if all their security checks and preflight duties were complete. We then boarded and had a non-eventfull flight.Local personnel not checking with crew before boarding. Another possible cause is the push by the company for on-time departures. It has been my observation that agents primarily focus on time departures and less emphasis on other duties.
Flight crew reported arriving at their gate late; due to hotel transportation problems; to find their flight in the process of boarding with no Flight Attendants on board. The passengers are asked to deplane and another security sweep of the aircraft is accomplished; before reboarding and departing late.