1 Broken Airplane Exit Row Light Gone Wrong

Airline delays and cancellations have become exceptionally common this summer of 2023. I have had both of my most recent flights either canceled or delayed.

My most recent horror story involves a broken airplane exit row light, pilot updates throughout the evening, airline attempts to find a “legal” flight crew and airplane, a canceled flight that was then uncanceled, booking a nearby hotel, and then canceling that to get back on the flight, looking for baggage, and multiple attempts to flag down help and running through the airport.

Sound familiar? Lessons learned are not to fly late in the day, always have a backup plan and know which hotels are nearby, carry snacks and a toothbrush, maybe even a change of clothes, meds, and glasses; and honestly, at this point, I think I might try to avoid flying in July if possible.

Summer thunderstorms seem to screw everything up.

Those storms, along with staff shortages and any minor technical or mechanical issues, can create problems.

If there is only one tip I can give, it is to fly in the morning, though, seriously!

Are mechanical issues beyond the control of anyone?

After so many delayed or canceled flights recently, my friend and I were happy to be about to board an on-time flight home from Nashville recently on United.

We were lining up when the gate agent announced that the cleaning crew had broken the airplane’s exit row light and the airplane could not fly without this light per FAA rules.

I can understand this; however rare, the exit row is essential if there is a real emergency.

But the bad part came when they announced a replacement part was not readily available and would most likely need to be flown in from Denver. And that flight was a couple of hours away.

Pilot updates

Then the pilot came out and apologized and said that while the part could be flown to us, the crew might be beyond their legal hours to work.

Do you even know how many hours a flight crew can work before they must legally take a break? No, me either, but staffing shortages are also becoming a common cause of delays and cancellations.

So even if we got the part, the flight might be canceled. But they were unsure, so we needed to hang tight and wait and see.

United then sent us some free meal vouchers for $15. At this point, we really had no idea what to do. I was debating whether to book for the next day and ask for a hotel based on the likely cancellation or wait and risk being unable to get on the next flight if it booked up.

It’s really a gamble at this point, so when you find yourself in a similar situation, do what works best for you.

Download the airline’s app anytime you are flying.

I recommend always having the airline’s app because that is the quickest way to check for other flights and rebook without waiting in line to speak to someone.

This has now helped me multiple times this summer.

What happened next was a series of annoyances. Now it was not an actual horror story, but the point of this website is to tell our annoying stories and commiserate, so go ahead and call it a horror story.

The pilot went above and beyond to talk to passengers and help us out. I will commend United on having excellent Pilots.

He continued to update the group of passengers and let us know that the part coming from Denver would be on a plane that was also delayed due to weather, so it was unlikely to come in time for the flight crew to be legal.

He let us know that there may be another option of a plane coming from Houston that we could use and use that crew, but that plane was also delayed due to weather.

See, a theme here? Do not fly when there is bad weather! Even though our initial issue was a broken light.

Eventually, the pilot said the flight would be canceled. We got in line with everyone else to book our free hotel and get some meal vouchers. I accepted this and was happy to go to a hotel and rest at this point.

I used the airline’s app to book a new flight for the morning; we got our hotel voucher, took our meal voucher, and grabbed some water and snacks on our way down to baggage claim.

The baggage claim had no idea what was going on.

When we got down there, we could not find our baggage though. We had checked it stupidly. Do not do this if you can help it. Another lesson learned.

I know this, and I typically do not do it, but since we were being charged for everything, my friend and I had tried to share a bag and pay for only one. This did not even work out, so it wasted our time.

There was a considerable line to speak to the one employee there, and when we saw others from our flight speaking to her, they let us know the employee had no idea where our baggage was, and they were told to come back the next day.

That would not work, so we sat down to commiserate and think about what to do.

At some point, another employee walked by and wondered why we were sitting in her way. We mentioned our missing luggage, and she said our flight was not canceled, just delayed. What?

We then learned our flight was now delayed and never canceled. So we were told at the gate it was canceled, the gate agent booked passengers into hotels for the night, but then the flight was changed to delayed instead, and the app never notified me.

Confusion set in, but I realized my luggage was probably still set to be put on this delayed flight and told my friend we needed to get back to the airplane then.

Rebooking multiple times in one day

We ran back upstairs, where the United counter was dead and shut down. It was getting late at night, and we had already been at the airport since early afternoon.

I had to flag down a random United employee walking by (they love it when you do that), and she took pity on us and went behind the counter to help. She suggested the pilot and crew hoped the flight was canceled because the crew wanted to stay in Nashville and party.

I am not sure about this, but she changed our flight back to the now-delayed flight, and we asked her to please call the gate and make sure there was an actual airplane and crew and that our baggage would be going to this plane. She did this for us and was very helpful.

We then needed to go through security for the second time. Remember our new water and snacks? We needed to ditch the drinks, so we gave our unopened drinks away to other people.

When TSA scanned my ID, the agent actually said, “Wait, what flight are you on” and I answered, “I wish I knew.” Do not try this usually, this was a small and friendly airport, and it was late at night, so people were a little more accommodating of my frustration.

We figured it out, returned to the gate, and saw the same pilot from earlier. He was super friendly, but I had a bit of a grudge now that he had told us the flight was canceled.

One minor mechanical issue, in this case, a broken airplane exit row light, can cause a ripple effect of chaos.

We got on a flight about five hours late with only 35 passengers on board. I do not know where they found the airplane or crew. I cannot remember the last time I flew on such an empty flight, and while an empty plane is excellent, the hassle was not worth it.

We had our same friendly pilot but an entirely new plane and crew. And I arrived home at 2 AM, whew!