Mega-delays continue despite airline promises; it’s time to act.
This April, when a Delta Air Lines flight from the Caribbean to Atlanta was diverted to Columbia, S.C., because of bad weather, passengers endured a five-hour wait sealed in the plane with crying babies, smelly toilets and insufficient food and water. When they finally were allowed to deplane, the irate fliers were initially held in a small room with a few chairs, passenger Nancy Whitehead recently told USA TODAY's Gary Stoller. And when they re-boarded with high hopes of heading to Atlanta, they were delayed again by a refueling problem. All told, the flight was about 10 hours late.
If any of this sounds familiar, it's because it is. The nightmare on Delta, complicated by the fact that it was an international flight and passengers had to clear U.S. Customs, is simply one of the more recent mega-delay horror stories.
After a couple of highly publicized incidents more than two years ago — when fliers were stuck for nearly 10 hours on a JetBlue flight in an ice storm at New York's Kennedy International and for eight hours on an American Airlines jet diverted to Midland, Texas — the airline industry and government officials promised to do more for passengers trapped on tarmacs for hours on end.
So how has the industry responded? With failed promises to fix the problem, and successful lobbying to block congressional action.
Congress has done so little to help that its members might as well have been stranded on a plane for the past two years. Last month, a Senate committee finally approved a measure that would require airlines to deplane passengers after three-hour tarmac delays, unless the pilot deems it unsafe or the flight could take off within 30 minutes. The House, meanwhile, has approved a limp provision that would do little to force change.
It's true that such delays are relatively rare and often beyond the airlines' control. Even so, they happen often enough to deserve a solution. Since January 2007, 200,000 domestic passengers have been stuck on 3,000 planes for three hours or more waiting to take off or taxi to a gate, according to Stoller's analysis of government data.
You'd think that bad publicity, competitive pressures and lobbying by FlyersRights.org, a consumer group founded by a passenger stranded two years ago, would have been enough to force meaningful action by the airlines. But as the Delta delay suggests, more is needed.
Continental Airlines says it is now using movable stairs and vehicles to deplane passengers after three hours. On June 18, at Newark Liberty airport, one passenger who asked to deplane when thunderstorms stranded a flight was able to do so, according to a spokesman. If Continental can provide this service, it's hard to see why everyone else can't, too.
Two years is long enough to wait for voluntary action. With a shove from Congress, odds are the industry will fix this problem faster than you can say "stranded passenger."
Posted at 12:21 AM/ET,
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
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14 comments:
Check out this morning's Today in the Sky blog => http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/blog.aspx
I just saw you on CNN and immediately posted your web site on my Twitter and Facebook account telling people to put your phone in their phone - which I also did. My husband spent 4 hours on the tarmac at JFK last night. What a nightmare! Thank you for doing this.
...and yet it was a Continental Express flight on a routine, three-hour flight from Houston to Minneapolis which left passengers stranded on the tarmac for more than 8 hours last night when the plane was forced to land due to weather conditions. The TSA officials had all gone home at the small airport which meant the passengers were forced to endure 8 hours on the plane with broken toilets and no food or water to speak of before staff arrived at the terminal at around 6 am.
So how much longer must we wait for legislation to correct the situation?
Bring it down to no more than a 2 hr limit on a large commercial airliner and 1 hr limit on one of those small commuter planes. Also, forbid any of the flight crew from dis-embarking unless the same courtesy is shown the passengers.
Oh, Continental Airlines suddenly cares? Well I don't believe that for a moment, And Continental Express surely doesn't, as they just turned a 3 hour flight into a 12-hour ordeal, as reported on all the major networks tonight 8/10/09.
THE AIRLINES WILL NOT ACT. CONGRESS MUST LEGISLATE THIS. CALL AND WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN OR WOMAN AND SENATORS!!!!!
as a constant flyer for the past 50 years i have been stuck on the tarmac several times and at JFK for over 4 hours and i will do anything to assist legislation to prevent that ...actually it is my firm belief that no one should be left on the tarmac over 2 hours---babies and the elderly and the sickly and and ---what are the possibilities of this being LAW????
stuck on a plane is totally Unacceptable and if the Airlines had any sense at all they would WAKE up and realise that the ONLY way to make a profit in their business is to ADD value and Service NOT eliminate it---flying has turned into the MOST unpleasant way to travel one can use...curry g --houston texas
Three hours unless the pilot thinks it's unsafe or the plane could take off in 30 minutes...are you kidding. That won't resolve a thing. There is so much wiggle room in that bill that you could park several of the new Airbuses in there.
I head an interivew from your organization on CNN and had high hopes that you would be a strong advocate for passengers, I appear to be wrong.
This kind of stuff is the best advertising for my airline of choice Amtrak. I'd rather spend two days on a train in relative comfort than two hours on any airline other than Southwest. I always check to see if I can take the train before I fly, but if I fly, is't Southwest or NOTHING.
I would simply file criminal charges against the kidnappers. Attentiaon Airline captains: Pull this stunt with me on board, I WILL FILE KIDNAPPING CHARGES.
Re the continental airlines passengers that were left in the small aircraft for 11 hours without food or water.This amounts to torture and false imprisonment. Passengers were at serious risk of life threatening blood clots, I know because I am a cardiologist. If I were one of the passengers, I would take over the aircraft by force or get killed in the process!
This is a grave abuse of human rights.
Those responsible must be brought to justice
Dr Hilary Almeida MD FACC
I kinda wondered that myself. Don't most states have a law concerning a person being held against their will? Why can't this law be used? Did anyone think to call the police and let them know that they were being held against their will?
As a lady i will wish everything goes well while flying otherwise who cares. specially the airport authority
Saavi
Cash Online Get Easy cash at your door step
I was on that flight back from the Dominican...It was the worst experience of my life.
Let me start by saying I am what most consider a frequent flyer. I travel 30+ segments a year and spend an average of 150 days a year in a hotel.
In saying that, I have yet to be stranded on a tarmac for more than 30 minutes. Thank God. I have experienced my share of cancellations, delays, bumps, etc., but never anything like what is being described here and in the media. But it hasn’t stopped me from thinking about what would happen if I was.
I travel for work so I am usually alone but there are times where I have traveled with the family (wife + five kids) and it is a nightmare. Let's be real, we have it good. Premium line, no waiting, all sitting together, etc. I don’t know how some of these families do it. I know when my kids done, especially the younger kids, they are done. They are tired, hot, and hungry and they are done, they are done with it all. The thought of being stuck on a plane, on the ground is too much.
So that brings me to my question.....why don’t you just get off the plane? Walk over and pull the emergency exit handle, jettison the ramp and get off the plane. Who is going to stop you and what are they going to do? Really, let’s think about it for a second. Yes, I know there are Air Marshals, but what is he going to do, shoot you? You don’t think the other passengers aren’t thinking the same thing? OK, so you make it out of the plane and you are arrested, who cares? What are they going to do? The minute the story hits the media, people are going to rally around the action and support it. Desperate times call for desperate measures. EVERY SINGLE TIME the airlines, airport, TSA....someone...has apologized after the fact and said ‘we messed up. Wont happen again’. You don’t think that wouldn’t be the case here?
You cannot legally hold us against our will. Take action and stand up for your rights. You can be sure if the time comes and I am in your shoes, you know I will.
Mike DuVarney
Denver, CO
Be very carefull what you ask for with this legislation. Where airlines get in trouble is trying to operate when conditions are not optimal and delays and diversions are probable. With the backing of "Federal Law", airlines will just cancel when the weather goes down and be allowed to do so legally. On those days, no-one will fly anywhere and rebookings will be impossible as flights are booked full for days in a row now. In addition, a crew on the tarmac will generally try to complete a flight. However, if they return to the gate and re-calculate legalities, they will have to be replaced. Legislation sounds good, but it will only strand more passengers in airports as the airlines use it as a legal means to not operate during rain/snow/wind/..etc
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