Hawaiian Air flight delayed due to problem with fuel load display

Hawaiian Airlines’ return flight to Honolulu didn’t depart Pago Pago until yesterday afternoon due to a display problem dealing with fuel load on the aircraft, says airline spokesperson Ann Botticeli.

Hawaiian’s flight from Honolulu arrived on time, to a bustling Pago Pago International Airport with many local residents waiting to see Hawaii-born actress Auli'i Cravalho, the voice of Moana, in the Disney movie “Moana”, along with one of its filmmakers. Cravalho’s mother was also one of the group.

The flight, HA 466, was to depart around 11:20p.m. Monday, but family members of three departing passengers told Samoa News yesterday morning that passengers weren’t informed until after 1a.m. Tuesday that the flight was delayed, with no time frame given for when the plane would depart Pago Pago.

Asked for the reason for the delay, Botticeli said, “We had a problem with the display that indicates the fuel load onboard the aircraft. It wasn't displaying any information.”

“We can't take off without this display, so we had to take the time to trace the problem to its source,” she said early yesterday afternoon from Honolulu. “We cleaned the electrical connections to the Fuel Quantity Processor and the aircraft has been cleared for takeoff.”

Based on information from the airport yesterday, Hawaiian flight 466 to Honolulu departed Pago Pago before 3p.m. Flight View, which tracks flights by airlines, shows the flight’s estimated time of arrival in Honolulu was 8:47p.m yesterday.

Hawaiian Air’s local office was over flowing with passengers seeking to re-confirm their connecting flights, with one passenger asking for a voucher from the airline to help defray the cost of a delayed overlay in Honolulu, due to the airline’s ‘fault’. It’s unknown if Hawaiian Air issued any vouchers to passengers due to the delay.

Regarding Disney’s animated Moana movie, it was in October that Hawaiian Air, in collaboration with The Walt Disney Studios, showcased the first of three custom Airbus A330 aircraft being adorned with imagery from “Moana.” Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, the voice of demigod Maui, were among the first to see the inspiring new design.

The planes will fly on Hawaiian’s regularly scheduled U.S. domestic routes as well as to international destinations including Brisbane and Sydney, Australia; Osaka and Tokyo, Japan; and Auckland, New Zealand through March of 2017 — none to American Samoa.

Meanwhile, travelers are reminded that Hawaiian has scheduled three extra flights for the holiday season and will operate on Wednesdays — Dec. 21, Dec. 28, 2016 and Jan. 4, 2017. Additionally the extra flights will operate on the same time schedule as the current two weekly flights on Mondays and Fridays.