Brazilian passengers’ patience tested after 4 days of delays

Brazil is South America’s biggest country, so it’s no surprise that it also has the most air traffic. This also means when things go wrong, the snowball gets a lot bigger before it melts.

Thousands of passengers were stranded after hundreds of flights were canceled over four days leading up to 6 o’clock p.m. on Friday. OF the 1,422 flights scheduled, there were 461 delays of an hour or more and over 115 cancellations.

TV crews combed airports, filming what looked like a refugee camp, with despondent passengers frowning into the camera and bodies covered with coats stretched out on the floor.

Air traffic controllers reported malfunctioning equipment as the source, while the fracas gave room for them to vent about poor working conditions. The Brazilian Air Force, who is in charge or overseeing Brazil’s commercial air traffic as well blamed the mishap on faulty radar screens and a dodgy communications link.

Air Force Commander Brig. Juniti Saito tried to reassure the populous in a statement that said some civil air traffic controllers would be replaced with military controllers.

He blamed a group of civil controllers for refusing to operate equipment Saito claims was in perfect working order, saying further, “This behavior is completely unacceptable because it violates the inalienable right of individuals to come and go.”