UA4860

This afternoon I boarded 4860 DAL-IAH. When we pushed back I noticed the A/C was only hot air. We taxied out then stopped. The captain came on and said we were on a ground hold because of weather. Just after that the engines shut down. The FA said it was to conserve fuel. All A/C and airflow shut off. She let the captain know and started serving ice water. 10 minutes later nothing and it was getting very hot. A few minutes later the cockpit door opened. They were getting hot also. He walk out and said (no PA) they were having electrical problems. I was front row so I could hear them both. One was on a cell phone with "tech support" trying to figure out how to restart. The other was calling United to ask them to contact the tower because we were so dead they had no contact with them or any other ground control. He told them we were the plane on such-and-such taxi way with no lights flashing. We were stranded, no power and heat building. And no one knew we were out there. More time passed and the captain decided that we had to open the doors. It felt so go just to have some fresh air.

United was finally able to get in touch with someone with the airport. We had already been out there almost an hour. The response was that they would be out as soon as they got a city escort. That took a while. Meanwhile we are baking. They arrived and we could hear the city guy saying we had to shut the doors. Captain said that he had already made sure everyone was secure and aware that we were not to unbuckle but closing the doors was not an option due to the high interior temperature. It took forever to get us back to the gate. And when we did get back the ground crew was dragging. The captain made sure they knew that it was important to get people off that plane fast.

I think he captain did a great job with the situation he was in. But I wonder about air traffic control. They did not notice they lost one? I know we were on ground hold but you would think after awhile someone would notice.