A passenger shared video sitting on a plane, waiting to depart, as the cabin overheated. Everyone on the aircraft is fanning themselves with whatever they have – magazines, papers, safety briefing cards – because the air conditioning isn’t working. Those onboard claim that the temperature reached 130°F.
A flight attendant addressed passengers saying they’re doing their best, that if they attempt water service or other cooling efforts it would interfere with getting the aircraft into the air. “The sooner we get in the air, the sooner it’ll cool off.”
Then she asks people to stay seated, keep seatbelts fastened, armrests down, and “please meditate and stay calm. Help each other.” There’s audible disbelief, murmurs, and passengers saying “what?!” in reaction to the suggestion that they cool themselves by meditating.
@bybrigg All of us with our little fans #fyp ♬ original sound – bybrigg
On the ground, cabin cooling normally comes from either the APU (auxiliary power unit) or pre‑conditioned air (PCA) hooked up from the gate. If the APU isn’t working, or pre-conditioned air isn’t working well, the cabin heats rapidly. A sun‑baked aluminum tube turns into an oven. Once in the air, the cabin will cool as the aircraft’s own cooling will be restored after engines start.
I highly suspect that “130°F” is an exaggeration. There’s no thermometer showing this. In general you’re not going to find documented cabin temperatures over about 122 °F (according to a Purdue study). More often, 105 – 115 °F cabins have been recorded in desert heat during extended ground delays when cooling wasn’t working. In 2023 in Las Vegas, one Delta flight hit 111.
These temperatures are generally not safe. We don’t know that the “130 degree” cabin actually hit 111 for any prolonged period of time, though.
And getting in the air is the best way to cool down the plane – though in extreme temperatures for an extended period of time the best answer is to return to the gate and take the delay.
The flight attendant here isn’t the decision-maker, and just wants t make the best of the situation she’s been given and calm the cabin. Her best advice is just to meditate, since no one in the passenger cabin can control the situation under normal conditions. Unfortunately, mindfulness doesn’t lower core temperature. At best it reduces motion and stress, which I suppose reduces metabolic hea.
In this situation here’s what I’d do.
- Ask for cooling or to deplane. Cooling didn’t seem like an option but I’d still inquire. I’d ask for the L1 door to be open with PCA hooked up – or to return to the gate. I’d ask the cabin crew to escalate this to the captain. Passenger feedback might influence decision-making.
Bear in mind that just opening the door or bringinng on jetbridge fan carts isn’t going to help a lot, just blowing hot air.
Window shades down when the aircraft arrives is something we see requested often at hot stations in the summer, and it does slow the rate of heat rise (but isn’t going to substitute for powered air).Shades can cut some solar heat getting into the cabin and shave a few minutes off of precooling.
- Track the clock. The U.S. Department of Transportation requires water and a snack by 2 hours into a tarmac delay, and the opportunity to deplane by 3 hours (on domestic flights) unless there’s a safety or security reason preventing this.
The DOT only shows long tarmac delays over three hours this summer through June. Fortunately, none were in Phoenix or Las Vegas! Although there was one each in Tulsa and West Palm Beach and 4 in Corpus Christi (a common diversion airport for Houston). There were 17 in Atlanta.
- Ask for water sooner. The rule is the floor, not the ceiling — crew can hand out water earlier than two hours at the captain’s discretion if conditions warrant.
- Call medics at first sign of illness. If anyone shows heat exhaustion or heat stroke (confusion, fainting, cessation of sweating, very high temperature), ask for medical assistance immediately.
(HT: Paul H)
I had this happen years ago at Ronald Reagan Airport. The crew’s solution was to open all the exit doors, but in doing so they accidentally triggered the oxygen masks to deploy. So we had to deplane and wait for another plane to be available.
@Tim Dunn — Did you see the Delta mention above? It reached 111 degrees supposedly on one of their planes once. Wowee. Now, I know that can happen on any airline. But, I wanted to know why that’s still worse for United? ‘Thank you for your attention to this matter.’
130 was the Feels Like temperature.
I don’t think that the temperature reached 130. I can confirm that meditating to stay calm and not make any motion does make high temperatures easier to endure.
Another Heated discussion on view-from-the-wing.
In PHX, LAS, or PSP it would be easy to hit 130 in the summer.
Years ago I had a thermometer in my car. While in Phoenix, I went out to my
car around noon and the inside cabin temp was 160 degrees.
That’s a Sun Country plane.
That’s a Sun Country flight it looks like.
At some point use common sense and deplane.
@Alan — Zing!
For the amount of money you’re paying for a ticket, once the temperature goes above 90 degrees the pilot should be required to immediately return to the gate and deplane – at the airline’s expense. The temperature in these planes should be a guaranteed, not to exceed 80 degrees, from the time you walk on until the time you walk off.
So you can die but they don’t really care.
if the plane is hot, it is the choice of the pilots and the airline
google ‘boeing and airbus air conditioning 101″
it costs money to cool the plane with the external systems when sitting at the gate
it costs more money to cool the plane with the internal systems sitting on the ground when not at the gate
a lot more money, because doing so burns fuel
if those pax are baking away from the gate, waiting to take off, then they did so because that aircraft had no margin for error on fuel load for it’s destination and the pilots were forced to cook the pax
moral of the story: don’t fly to or from hot locales on small airlines
One of many reasons I only fly early-morning flights during the summer months.
How is this legal?
Wouldn’t the pilot just use common sense at this point and call an emergency? People will die at this temp. If you left a child lock in a car that reached this temp the cops would come and arrest you.
@Paul — Key word “at the airline’s expense”… so, I see you’re in-favor of meaningful air passenger rights legislation including compensation to passengers in addition to rebooking or refunds whenever an incident is under their control (I’d argue broken AC or lack of heat winter is indeed a mechanical issue, under their control.) We in the USA deserve something similar to EU261 or Canada’s APPR. When the adults are back in-charge, Congress really should pass new laws.
They need to take these things much more seriously. Your body runs out of water to produce sweat you go down pretty quickly–and the line from very unpleasant to life threatening is not obvious. And the elderly will have a lot less awareness of it and will go down earlier. And the reality is that people who are not from a climate with a serious heat threat generally do not recognize the danger. I’ve met someone who just about killed themselves that way–she had just moved here, saw a lot of us locals out hiking, went out, didn’t notice that all the locals had gone in, barely made it back to her car. Had she collapsed her survival chances would have been basically zero.
This is not right and very dangerous , but the airlines want to save a buck on using the air conditioning. It is very sad than profits come before health and security. Love to see the Ceo and others big wigs sit in there for awhile. Very wrong.
A word of advice: NEVER NEVER EVER fly Air India. Stuck in the tarmac in Delhi in 120F and no ac two years ago. A company that’s a Harvard Business case of incompetence and lack of communication. You have been warned?!!!
I would get up and deplane. If they tried to stop me, there would be a fight on their hands. I would rather have the police come and arrest me than sit there and bake. The airlines should be fined for keeping passengers sitting on an overheating aircraft.
It’s pretty clear that the plane wasn’t as hot as passengers claimed. There would’ve been medical incidents if it had been. The people we saw in the video weren’t even covered in sweat. I’m not arguing that planes shouldn’t be cooled, but it seems to me that someone is making a big deal out of a temporary, unfortunate situation for clicks.
Just open a window
@David R. Miller — Nah, you and the other resident bigots here (check your comment history on other posts) are all-talk, no-game. You’d sit there and take it. And I wouldn’t blame you. No one wants to end up on a no-fly list. De-escalate. Mind your own business. That’s more likely scenario.
@1990: “When the adults are back in-charge, Congress really should pass new laws.”
When cows fly, when Congress finally understands why they have a job, or when God looks down and says you piss me off?
BTW, Congress is getting ready to pass new laws that erases all the past good they did.
Last month, 8/13/25, Philly to Nashville on AA Airbus, we boarded the plane and all window shades were down and it was really warm. FAs announced that A/C wouldn’t work while connected to ground power. It got pretty toasty, but no delays (other than clueless passengers dawdling), so pulled back as soon as they could.
Discovered that Nashville is apparently the hotspot for bachelorette parties. Ugh. Plane full of partying Whoooo! Girls in multiple groups..
@davidrmiller re: get up and deplane
if the doors are closed and armed, at the gate, taxiing or holding for atc on a taxiway, if you take matters in to your own hands, no fly list for you
commercial air travel is personal combat and you sign up for the airline’s right to inflict unbounded suffering, short of death, if that is what they need to do to preserve their Purity Of Operation
@AlanZ — Yuuuuup. Gonna take a while to clean this all up. Glad to see South Korea, Brazil, and a few others are trying to hold theirs accountable. Would be nice to see the EU do so with Hungary at least… *sigh*
@hagbard celine — You come around VFTW long enough to know there are a few folks, like @David R. Miller, who are not ‘serious people.’ No, they just want to stir up stuff, usually with ‘bad takes,’ thinly-vied racism or sexism, and other bigotry. It’s not great, but it’s the price we pay for ‘engagement’ and a relatively open space for dialogue on here, of course, all thanks to Gary.
It’s a good way to kill elderly passengers, particularly those with cardiac problems.
@Kirk Benson,
Opening the doors on the ground would not cause the oxygen masks to drop. Something else happened there.
People pay a lot of money for hot yoga classes in major cities. Maybe this is a feature and not a bug.
@Peter — Good point. Either this, or use that Amex Platinum Equinox credit!
Some of us don’t want to make a scene, cause hassles for the hard working crew…but I have had heat exhaustion, and while not on a plane when it happened, it was pretty awful. Important to get person into cool space. I feel for everyone in this situation, and as awful as it might be from an operational standpoint wonder if there couldn’t be FAA or other rules to just deplane everyone until the issue is resolved. And can’t help wondering if the system isn’t checked prior to take off when the Captain boards and does all his checks?
What options did the cabin crew have here? Nothing. So, they suggested the people would be more comfortable in they acted calmly (i.e., meditate). So, you’ve got something to post on social media. How to make it stick out? Claim it’s 130°. I’ll take the temporary discomfort rather than having the flight cancelled or me not on it by deplaning. I also assume there comes a point after engine startup that returning to the gate causes you to be uncomfortable longer than departing.
You know you are in a Banana Republic when this kind of torture is 100% legal.
The smart move would not be to start a fight, but to fake a medical emergency. Stand up, ask for water and pass out. Then they’ll have no choice but to deplane you. It’s also virtually impossible to prove that you faked it, because fainting looks different for different people with different conditions.
Any airline captain who is respectful of passengers would have returned to the gate. If just one engine is running you can at least have one of the 2 avialable ac systems running.
Three months ago, after a particularly hellish flight, I swore off of commercial aviation for the rest of my life, thank you for reminding me of how wise my decision was.
Somebody should have opened a window huh? In reality there is a nuclear option. Demand that the captain return to the gate IMMEDIATELY or you will open the emergency door and slide down to the tarmac to escape the hell hole.