Sometimes I feel very isolated from world affairs – then they strike at my friends and family. This is verbatim from Leo Makela. I am very grateful for the opportunity to repost.
Hi all,
You may or may not have been aware of the incidents in Bolivia:
We have more personal details.
Last week Kevin flew down to Tarija Bolivia for the International Tae Kwon Do Pan-American tournament. He went with Master Lu and another student from Ottawa and another 3 participants flew from Toronto. The tournament was great (Kevin got Silver in patterns) and he loved Tarija, especially the girls.
However,
On the way back they were waiting in Santa Cruz, Bolivia to board an American Airlines flight to Miami when the dispute between the Airlines and the local airport authorities occurred. American Airlines refused to pay the extra fee that the local authorities were demanding (about $2000). After a couple of hours of stand-off the pilot and aircrew suddenly left the departure lounge, boarded the aircraft and (without permission from the control tower) took off – abandoning about 140 passengers in the departure lounge, including the Canadian, American and Puerto Rico TKD teams.
Then the airport authorities told the passengers to collect their checked luggage and leave the airport. Kevin got his luggage and tried to return to the departure lounge to rejoin the other people on the team. Security guards tried to stop him but he pushed through. Then he and other TKD people faced off against about 1/2 dozen riot police who appeared carrying batons. They refused to leave until people were reunited and some settlement was made. The Canadian consulate, the American consulate and the local senator got involved and finally transportation was arranged to take the Canadians, Americans and Puerto Ricans to the Cortez Hotel.Thank God Taekwon Do people, especially our own master, Master Phap Lu know people “in high places”.
The next day the TKD masters refused an offer by American Airlines to fly them out “sometime during the weekend”. Instead, on a strongly worded recommendation by the Canadian consulate and Foreign Affairs in Canada they paid the local airline about $500 per person to fly them to Miami immediately. Darn good thing too – they left around 11:30 Wed night and on Thursday the army stormed the airport.
From Miami, after considerable argument, they managed to get booked to O’Hare in Chicago and then to Ottawa. Finally, around 6:00 pm on Thursday they arrived at the Ottawa airport. Kevin and the others were thrilled to be home in Canada and of course all of us were relieved to have them back. We along with John and Val all showed up to pick them up.
It remains to be seen whether we will be able to get any compensation from American Airlines. – At least everyone returned safe and sound. This incident may severely restrict future international TKD
competitions in the future.
Know what this reminds me of? the exploding Pinto. The makers calculated that it was cheaper to make settlements with the families of people who died when the gas tank exploded than to correct the problem. Apparently the American Airlines brass similarly calculated that it was cheaper to “inconvenience” 140 passengers than to risk the loss of the airplane. One hopes – but doesn’t see any evidence to this effect – that the pilots at least made a determination that their passengers were in no physical danger.