Waiting for Jeffrey Feltman

Shant wrote me this in response to an item from yesterday:  "When I read your post about the Egyptian pilot refusing to wait for the US ambassador, I remembered a similar incident in Beirut with MEA (I think in August 2007).  I was traveling from Beirut to US via London. The MEA flight to London was delayed for about an hour in Beirut. Then we learned we were waiting for Jeffrey Feltman who showed up eventually and sat in the front. The delay caused more than 15 Lebanese families including myself to miss the connecting flight from Heathrow to Chicago. MEA representatives later came and took us to the Hotel since it was their fault that we missed the plane, and arranged another flight on the following day. The British airline (BMI or BA) neither waited nor claimed responsibility. Most passengers were elderly or women with several children returning from the summer vacation in Lebanon, and had to endure a great deal of inconvenience simply because the MEA pilot did not refuse to wait...."