St. Paul, Minn -- Link Christian was one of the 47 passengers trapped in a plane on a tarmac for six hours early Saturday morning in Rochester, Minn. They didn't have a way to get off the plane then, but the St. Paul, Minn. man is now working to help other plane passengers be assured of their rights to proper treatment by airlines.
Christian said on "The Early Show" Tuesday his "nightmare" flight is an example of why a airline Passengers' Bill of Rights needs to get through Congress.
Christian, who sat in the back row of the plane by the bathroom that broke during the six-hour wait, said he's going to tell his story to Congress next month in hopes that the Bill of Rights will pass.
"I simply want to tell the story," he told "Early Show" co-anchor Julie Chen. "I watched everything for six hours. So my view is to not politicize it, but to tell the story of what it was like to be on that airplane for six hours on that airplane, being essentially a prisoner ... I would like to see the rights of passengers on a tarmac be enhanced to the extent the rights that passengers have safety-wise when they're in the air. There's thousands of regulations that protect us in the air. I'd like to see some of those regulations while we're on the ground."
Christian said during the wait the flight crew continued to tell passengers they would get off the plane, telling them at one point a bus would come and pick them up. The bus, he said, never came.
He said, "It was six hours of a continued sense that we were going to get out of there."
However, as the hours ticked by, Christian said the plane's atmosphere grew gradually tenser.
"We became increasingly frustrated," he said. "Everybody at that point was pretty exhausted. People had children crying. The whole atmosphere of the plane was just one of sort of deteriorating emotional stability."
But as Kate Hanni, a passenger advocate who was herself once stuck on the tarmac for 13 hours, said, passengers currently have few options when they're stuck on the runway.
"Right now as it stands, the airlines can hold you indefinitely," she said, "and they don't have to provide you with food, water, hygienic toilets, or any medical needs."
In her 13-hour ordeal, Hanni said women were making diapers for their babies out of t-shirts and diabetics were going into shock.
She said, "There's no culpability for the airlines at all, which is why we're pushing for a law in Congress."
Hanni said the legislation in the Senate pushes for a time limit the airlines can hold passengers on the tarmac. She told Chen a constraint of three hours should be mandated. In addition, Hanni said advocates are pushing for essential needs: food, water, toilets and trash, to be managed while passengers are held on the runway.
Hanni added there are no federal regulations preventing the airline from removing passengers from the plane, which ExpressJet Airlines claimed was the reason the passengers of Friday's flight couldn't leave the plane.
11 comments:
If we (wife andI) were stuck on a plane for 2 hours I know I would be going to jail. My actions would be simply to walk to the exit and open the door and try and get to the ground in a safe manner.I can see a small amout of delay or to keep things calm etc. Then the airlines should see that passengers get toilet,food, and fresh air. If not then a good chance a fight would be on.
I would be willing to bet that if a US Senator had been on that plane, things would have been handled differently.
Incidents like this have been going on for a long time. It's time someone with enough "rudder" stepped up and pushed thru a bill of rights to prevent these events. Where are our Congressmen?
What are your thoughts on this idea:
http://www.airliner.net/blog/continental-express-tarmac-delay
Is criminal investigation feasible and/or a helpful step?
How Northwest Airlines is screwing their customers
August 17, 2009
I recently had the most awful experience I have ever had with an airline. This situation is so ridiculous I would almost find it humorous if it hadn’t happened been me they screwed. Take my advice and never fly with Northwest Airlines!
I booked a multiple destination flight from Columbus to San Antonio, San Antonio to Dallas, and then Dallas back to Columbus through Orbitz. Northwest Airlines issued my ticket. Three days before my flight from San Antonio to Dallas, I decided instead to drive to Dallas early and just catch my flight back to Columbus. I called Orbitz to see if I could get some money back for driving instead of flying one leg of the trip and was told I had to cancel that flight. So I agreed and after the flight was cancelled, I was then told that my flight from Dallas to Columbus had been cancelled as well.
Evidently Northwest loves to collect extra fees for changing tickets. If you purchase a ticket that goes to multiple destinations, you not only can’t cancel any portion of the trip, you have to literally show up for every leg of trip or your entire trip is cancelled! Not only was I not allowed to cancel my flight from San Antonio to Dallas, they told me that if I didn’t show up for my flight in San Antonio, my flight to Columbus would be cancelled as well. How much would it cost me to drive one leg of the trip instead of flying….a minimum of $200, possibly more!
I can’t believe the desperation of Northwest Airlines to try and make an extra buck by hiding fees in their Terms of Agreement! When I called their customer service, they were extremely rude and obnoxious. I was shocked! I would never have believed I would receive this kind of treatment from any business much less a big airline. Now I’m out hundreds of dollars by missing my flight from San Antonio and have to pay a minimum of $200 if I want to re-book my flight from Dallas to Columbus.
People should be aware that Northwest might be cheap to fly, but they are hiding as many fees as they can in the small print of those online agreements you agree to when you click accept. I will never fly Northwest Airlines again and I hope many people will read this and avert disaster. Just pay a little extra and fly Southwest which is an honest company.
The only consolation I have had throughout this awful experience is the knowledge that companies like Northwest, who are dishonest and corrupt, will always go out of business when they resort to this kind of dishonest behavior.
In disgust,
Jonathan Munson
I don't fly any more because this.
I would probably flip out at being confined against my will, go to jail, and be confined against my will!
I Thank god that i was not in the palne at that time otherwise the things would have been diffrent
Saavi
Cash Online Get Easy cash at your door step
So basically airlines have every right to kill you. Just find someone they don't like and keep them on the tarmac until they starve to death. What other industry has carte blanche to murder their customers?
I agree with kingsakmon, If I had been treated that way I would have been in jail also. But I guess if there were no none there who is giong to arrest me.I would think I would persue kidnapping charges.
good job kingsakmon
I am with KINGSAKMON, they would have to shoot me to keep me on that plane. I will never fly again while the airlines have the right to keep me like a caged animal. I know there are people that have to fly for there jobs ,but anyone that does not have to fly should take alternate means to get where their going.... then and only then will we get a bill of right.
I heard on the news that there is a powerful airlines lobby that has the proposed legislation stalled in committee and until someone in Congress gets stuck on a plane (as Howard mentioned), this bill may never be passed. Unless, of course, we all start showing up at town hall meetings and make our voices heard about this problem. Bring it out in the open, so to speak.
Post a Comment