The Aviation Herald is usually pretty well informed…
The passengers report they were kept on board of the aircraft until arrival of the replacement aircraft because the airport does not have stairs to accomodate the A380.
The stairs reason is of course utter nonsense, they just didn’t want to deal with hoards of people of which a great percentage could not legally enter Canada etc. I guess it must have been very interesting to be on board. With a bit of rhetorical talent it should be no problem to start a riot. Probably easy to overthrow the Goose Bay “government” with an A380 full of people 
And: How did the get off the plane when the replacement arrived? Did it bring the stairs?
Corrected:
The passengers report they were kept on board of the aircraft until arrival of the replacement aircraft because the airport does not have
stairsspace to accomodate the A380.
achimha wrote:
The stairs reason is of course utter nonsense, they just didn’t want to deal with hoards of people of which a great percentage could not legally enter Canada etc
I reckon so too, as any stair which can reach the A330/340 airplane also can reach the lower deck of the 380. But it was the official statement and that is why AVH reports it that way.
Not unknown btw. Also Swiss kept the pax on board their 777 when it landed in Frobisher / Iqualuit. Would have frustrated the hell out of me to sit on a plane when there was an interesting destination to discover… and who would get lost in Frobay or Goose… it’s not big enough to get lost in.
I guess it must have been very interesting to be on board.
I really can’t understand why passengers always make such a fuss about having to stay on board. No wonder they are treated like cattle when they behave like cattle. They were prepared to fly for another five hours on this plane, so why can’t they just sit and wait for the replacement planes to arrive? There is probably no place at Goose Bay airport to seat 600 passengers – so their option after deplaning would be to wait standing for several hours…
Because an average person (like me) absolutely cannot stand beeing squeezed in there one minute longer than necessary. Especially when an airplane is standing on the ground with limited ventilation and nothing is happening this is exhausting and psychologically different.
I remember an incident with a technical problem one summer where people almost begged to be let out.
I can inderstand it very well.
Sit back, relax and watch another movie.
My priority would be to get a selfie in front of that busted engine. I have an obligation to my Instagram/Youtube/Facebook followers.
Especially when an airplane is standing on the ground with limited ventilation and nothing is happening
If you would be standing in some cramped shed in Goose Bay the ventilation would be even worse and nothing would be happening either.
