This article has a little bit more information. Let the finger-pointing begin.
And if I was on the plane, I would have called 911.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=68496535.blog
But in a Sunday interview with the Post-Bulletin of Rochester, Rochester International Airport manager Steve Leqve tells the paper there's no reason the passengers had to stay on the plane. "They wouldn't have had to go through security. They could have come into the airport," he tells the paper.
...which backs up my existing comments on the matter. Continental had two options: one, debark the passengers at the airport and either put them up in a hotel or provide them with no-cost alternate transportation to Minneapolis-St. Paul; or two, pay Delta/Northwest or another airline serving the airport to continue the flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul.
At least, to me, it seems Continental Express is entirely at fault, and someone is probably going to retain a lawyer.
Finger-pointing, indeed. The airport manager said there was no reason they could not have come into the airport. However Continental does not fly into the airport but Delta does and controls the gates. Left unsaid was why they didn’t use stairs and buses though Express Jet says that option was not offered.
80 miles from their final destiniation. Could have rented a car or called someone they knew to pick them up.
Just unconscionable and inexcusable.
Link to Minneapolis Star Tribune story.
http://www.startribune.com/local/east/52798827.html
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