Posted on 02/17/2007 11:17:19 AM PST by Mr. Brightside
Passenger bill of rights proposed
Fri Feb 16, 1:00 PM ET
Senator plans passengers' bill of rights
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record) says she plans to introduce a "Passengers' Bill of Rights" that would give passengers the right to deplane when an aircraft has been on the ground for more than three hours past its scheduled departure time.
"I've been stuck on the tarmac many times in my travel back and forth to California," Boxer said in a statement posted on her Web site. "Sometimes with the weather and traffic, it's unavoidable. But to keep passengers - which usually include infants and the elderly - on a plane for eleven hours in the worst of conditions is absurd. If a plane is stuck on the tarmac or at the gate for hours, a passenger should have the right to deplane. No one should be held hostage on an aircraft when clearly they can find a way to get people off safely."
Boxer made the proposal following incidents at airports in New York and Texas where passengers were forced to remain on planes for as long as 11 hours.
You can read about a grassroots effort to support such a bill at http://www.strandedpassengers.blogspot.com.
Boxer says the bill should include provisions that ensure passengers basic access to food, water and hygiene.
Currently there are no government regulations limiting the time an airline can keep passengers on grounded aircraft.
The airlines' voluntary code of conduct simply says that during such extraordinary delays, they will make "reasonable efforts" to meet passenger needs for food, water, restroom facilities and medical assistance.
Airlines have blocked attempts to set minimum legal standards for customer service by agreeing to a voluntary code of conduct that they have not always followed.
On Feb. 14, hundreds of JetBlue passengers were stuck for as long as 11 hours in parked jets at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York during a winter storm.
The airline acknowledged that it hesitated nearly five hours before calling for a fleet of buses to unload at least seven jets that spent the day sitting on runways because of the weather and congestion at the gates.
A similar incident happened on Dec. 30, when American Airlines and American Eagle diverted 121 flights found for Dallas to other cities because of thunderstorms. About 5,000 passengers were left sitting on parked aircraft, some for eight hours. One of those advocating for a passengers' bill of rights, Kate Hanni, a California real estate agent, was stuck for hours on the tarmac on American Flight 1348, with her family.
David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association, an airline trade organization, cautioned that "inflexible standards that would be imposed through some sort of mandatory legislation could easily have the unintended effect of inconveniencing customers more in some situations."
For example, if a plane returns to the gate and passengers disembark, the plane loses its place in line for takeoff and delays might even be longer.
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It's pretty hard to disagree with her proposal.
Pass this law - if the plane sits for two hours on the ground in one spot, the passengers have an absolute right to get off, by any means possible.
(Pop the emergency slides)
You would never see an airline trap passengers for more than 1:55 again.
Those slides are expensive, rare, and not quickly replacable.
"I've been stuck on the tarmac many times in my travel back and forth to California,"
As Judge Nepoliatono said on O'Reilly, the only thing that will solve this is for passengers to hang tough after the incident and file a class action suit.
Northwest was once sued - as they rightly should have been - and now has a 3-hour policy (they once kept me at Detroit for 6 hours, missing all connecting flight to Asia).
By the way, this group was on C-SPAN recently:
http://www.strandedpassengers.blogspot.com/
"It's pretty hard to disagree with her proposal."
True, but similar bills have been up several times and are always shot down. Congress is in the airlines' pockets.
Class action suits are the answer.
~ Blue Jays ~
Maybe if we quit subsidizing the airlines and they suffered when they provided a bad service a bill wouldn't be necessary.
You posted that while I was typing, darn it...
Populist type laws made following some horrific isolated incident are seldom a good idea. In the case of the Jet Blue planes, my guess is that Jet Blue (upstart, fly by night) Airlines leases gate space from some major carrier. When they taxi away hoping to take off, they are very unlikely to displace the major carrier's own plane now stuck at the gate an hour later. So there's the Jet Blue plane someplace on the tarmac at JFK or EWR, and what they're going to move a stairway to the plane and let these folks get off? Our NYC airports just aren't set up for stuff like that, especially in the middle of an ice storm. This isn't San Francisco, you know.
ML/NJ
Why three hours?
One sounds about right to me.
This has never happened to me (crossed fingers, of course) but it sounds nearly unbearable :-(.
D
"(I don't consider a supposed discount on a future purchase, or a check for under twenty dollars a benefit.)"
That's what the airlines will happily give you for delaying your flight.
Actually, JetBlue uses JFK as its hub. They have their own gates, and their corporate office is based within the airport.
Best way to get from Phoenix to New York, IMO. Satellite TV and more variety of snacks than the other airline offering non-stops to New York. /end sycophantry
One reason she is taking up the border patrol investigation is because Bush dropped the ball. She figures she will pick up support from this. The republicans dropped the ball on this incident.
I was once flying from EWR to SFO for the weekend. We were kept on the tarmac in the taxi lane for four hours for unspecific delays I still don't understand. I would have preferred to return to the gate and reschedule the weekend since I had already missed the Friday night activities.
There should absolutely be a point where passengers can be relieved of going on the flight if they desire. Even if it means a bus and portable stairs are transported to where the airplanes are waiting in line. They could also offer free unrestricted domestic tickets if more than 80% of passengers opt to remain on the flight...or something along those lines.
~ Blue Jays ~
"what they're going to move a stairway to the plane and let these folks get off? Our NYC airports just aren't set up for stuff like that,"
Well, that's precisely the point: they should be set up to accomodate unreasonable delays.
Under the scenario you propose, anything goes. They could keep those passengers on the tarmac for 24 hours and suffer no liability.
I've had 4+ hours - On the runway, waiting to take off.
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