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August 11, 2009
Latest passenger rights debacle: all-nighter in "regional" jet
Take the passenger compartments from about 12-14 small beater cars -- Yugos, Fiat sedans, Chevettes, Fiestas and a few VW Squarebacks (not Bugs, I said beater cars, not classics) -- and weld them together in a line. Fill them up with people, some large, some babies. Oh, put a chemical camping toilet in the backseat and a few bottles of water in the front seat. Then leave the people locked in there for six hours in the dark, 50 yards from an airline terminal. That may give you an idea of what it was like for "47 passengers stuck on a cramped 50-seat Embraer ERJ-145 regional jet operated by ExpressJet, which supplies regional flights under the Continental banner. [...] "The plane is starting to smell bad. There are problems with the bathroom. There is no food. And we were in that plane the entire night,” said Mr. [Link] Christin, a law professor in St. Paul." as quoted by Joe Sharkey in the New York Time story Deliverance for Travelers Trapped on the Tarmac.
Similarly, Nomaan Merchant of the Associated Press reports in the Washington Post story Passengers Kept on Plane for Hours that ExpressJet blamed a lack of security screeners for leaving people on the plane: The airport manager, Steven Leqve, said that wasn't true. He said passengers could have waited in a secure area. "This is not an airport issue. This is an airline issue," he said. Over at Flyersrights.org, victim turned passenger rights activist Kate Hanni (my video blog) has pushed strong reform legislation from Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) through the Commerce Committee. The bill is ready for floor action. A much weaker bill that fails to limit tarmac holds to 3-hours or less has passed the full House.
Posted by Ed Mierzwinski at August 11, 2009 08:07 AM
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