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47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities
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Author:  Hunter07 [ Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:30 pm ]
Post subject:  47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities
Stupidity and incompetence run amuck!

Morons! :evil:
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http://www.startribune.com/local/eas...3aPc:_Yyc:aUUF

By JEAN HOPFENSPERGER, Star Tribune

August 9, 2009

When Link Christin boarded a Continental Airlines flight from Houston to the Twin Cities on Friday night, he expected to be on the ground in about three hours and ready for a comfy bed.

Instead, he was among 47 passengers who spent the night trapped inside a small airplane, parked at the Rochester airport, complete with crying babies and the aroma of over-used toilets.

The ExpressJet Airlines that operated the plane says the flight was diverted to Rochester because of Twin Cities thunderstorms, and that airline regulations prevented passengers from getting off the plane.

Christin is incredulous that the airline couldn't figure out an option besides trapping passengers on the plane for nine hours.

"It's not like you're on a [Boeing] 747 and you can walk around,'' said Christin, a professor at William Mitchell College of Law. "This was a sardine can, with a single row of seats on one side of the plane and two rows of seats on the other. And they've got about 50 people inside, including babies, for the whole night. It was a nightmare.''

Continental Airlines, which issued the tickets for Flight 2816, referred inquiries to ExpressJet Airlines. ExpressJet spokesperson Kristy Nicholas said the flight ran into several problems.

The airline crew on the plane reached their maximum work hours in the air, so another crew had to be flown in. The alternative of chartering a bus didn't work out. And letting the passengers into the Rochester airport was not possible because they would have to go through security screening again, and the screeners had gone home for the day.

What about just letting the passengers sleep in the airport terminal? "That was not provided as an option by ground services personnel at the airport,'' said Nicholas.
Author:  JonL [ Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities
Airports have emergency plans (and drills) for flight emergency situations (Sioux City Ia was an outstanding example). Seems like it's past time for emergency plans for stranded airplanes & the passengers on them. Situations like this have happened too many times. Healthcare, Economic Recovery, and quibbling over the newest Supreme Court justice seems to have all the attention but maybe we need to insist that some of the persistent smaller issues also be taken care of in between the political posturing. :x
8)
Author:  White Horseradish [ Mon Aug 10, 2009 8:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities
Seems like removing the dependency on the "screeners" might have worked...
Author:  MostlyHarmless [ Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities
This sort of thing happens because there is no one at the airline who is empowered to make a decision to do anything about it. The industry keeps promising to fix it and ducked legislation addressing it in the past by promising to be good. It wasn't that long ago that some very specific time limits were being considered after which passengers had to be allowed to deplane.

Clearly, the promises aren't working and there's going to have to be FAA rulemaking or legislation to get the airlines to behave.
Author:  mrokern [ Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities
MostlyHarmless wrote:
The industry keeps promising to fix it and ducked legislation addressing it in the past by promising to be good.


Sounds like our criminal justice system... :?
Author:  340PD [ Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities
These stories pop up every now and then. I can't even imagine going on a 3 hour flight and being stuck on the plane for 9 hours. I would be furious. I'm sorry but if the plane is on the ground passengers should be allowed to leave the plane, pure and simple. Detaining them against their will should be a crime.
Author:  Mattxd [ Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities
The sheep onboard could have solved their problem.

hello 911, I'm being held on an airplane against my will.

I may have omitted a couple facts but the statement isn't untrue.
Author:  princewally [ Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities
I was on a plane for 8 hour for a trip back from Chicago, once. Spent most of that time parked on the runway, being told every 15 minutes that takeoff was delayed "just a bit longer". Never took that airline or scheduled a layover in the airport again.
Author:  Mattxd [ Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities
I got stuck on the ramp in Indy for 6 hours because of storms in Chicago. Some old lady ended up having an heart attack only three rows away. A couple doctors on board carried her to the galley to preform CPR as we damn near flew getting back to a gate. It kind of put everything into perspective. It took them a another hour to get the oxygen restocked and new drink carts by then the weather cleared and we made it without any further delay.
Author:  MostlyHarmless [ Wed Aug 12, 2009 6:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities
Mattxd wrote:
The sheep onboard could have solved their problem.
hello 911, I'm being held on an airplane against my will.


Nope. It's been tried and it doesn't work.

Part of the reason is that once an aircraft leaves the gate with the intention of flight it is under federal jurisdiction until it arrives at its destination gate. Federal law gives broad powers to the pilot.

It's a situation like the Caine Mutiny. The pilot could go completely batshit crazy and there still isn't, legally, anything anyone can do about it until the flight is over.
Author:  trob09 [ Wed Aug 12, 2009 10:13 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities
some time ago on another forum I commented that airlines have forgotten that they are a service business. Instead, they operate as if they are a cargo business. They appear to be concerned only about the mechanics of travel, timetables and complying within the letter of transportation regs. It appears that the last concern is customer satisfaction. It is my opinion that this event has less to do with "security personnel" or other plausible-sounding bs and more to do with a desire to retain the revenue. If you let someone off the plane, they're going to want a refund. If you hold them hostage, claiming XYZ regulation is the culprit, you're going to try to retain that ticket fare.

To be fair, the airlines business is a tough one. there are lots of complexities. in the end, though, it is their fiduciary obligation to deal with those complexities and provide a service to the customer. Instead, we are treated like an inconvenience to their flight schedule.

I fly _a lot_. I regularly achieve the highest-level frequent-flier rating on several airlines. This kind of event is, unfortunately, all too common. a personal example is: on one snowy morning, I was on a 6:00 am flight to NY. We pushed back from the gate - all of 10 feet. The pilot came on the speaker to announce our "on time departure" and then proceeded to tell us that there was a 3-hour wait for the de-icing station. He went on to say that the de-icing delay didn't matter as the runways were closed anyway and it would likely be 5 hours before we could depart. They wouldn't let us off the plane. I arrived in NY several hours after my meeting ended, turned around and came back. The plane was full of people in the same predicament as many of us were on the same flight back to MN. The "on time departure" allowed the airline (NWA) to claim the revenue since the delays weren't their fault - it was weather and airport delay. The right thing to do would have been to let people know that the schedule was going to be blown and give them the option of going home. Instead we were held hostage. I've had at least 5 other experiences that are similar with different airports, different carriers and different reasons.

I am not a fan of "government cures all ills", despite my long-haired-hippy-liberalness. I do, however, recall a time when a regulated airline industry operated more smoothly than our de-regulated one.
Author:  SethB [ Mon Aug 17, 2009 7:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities
trob09 wrote:
This kind of event is, unfortunately, all too common. a personal example is: on one snowy morning, I was on a 6:00 am flight to NY. We pushed back from the gate - all of 10 feet. The pilot came on the speaker to announce our "on time departure" and then proceeded to tell us that there was a 3-hour wait for the de-icing station. He went on to say that the de-icing delay didn't matter as the runways were closed anyway and it would likely be 5 hours before we could depart. They wouldn't let us off the plane. I arrived in NY several hours after my meeting ended, turned around and came back.


The magic phrase is "flight in vain". The last time something like that happened to me, it took them a couple of weeks, but I did get my money back. (I even kept the airline miles I flew.)
Author:  trob09 [ Mon Aug 17, 2009 12:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities
SethB wrote:
The magic phrase is "flight in vain". The last time something like that happened to me, it took them a couple of weeks, but I did get my money back. (I even kept the airline miles I flew.)


Since I neither booked nor paid for the flight (my client did) that point was moot for me. No one can refund my time - the thing that got me more than anything. The last thing on anyone's mind was whether the customer was being served - except, of course, for the customers not being served.

I will keep that handy catchphrase in the rolodex of obscure flight terms though.

t
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