Airline Passengers Stranded For 9 Hours
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I was at LAX on a NWA flight to MSP on Monday. Yes, it was foggy, but we got out of there on time. It must've been more with the fuel delays and lack of staff. And besides, isn't bad weather the whole reason for control towers?
"break glass in case of emergency"
Not fog, it was Justin's fault.
On the bright side, no one was surcharged while imprisoned in this Kafkaesque nightmare of epic proportions.
And, very little cannibalism!
At least the bathrooms worked. I might have just walked off and let myself get arrested. Spending a night in jail might be better than a night on the airplane.
If they had Wi-Fi I would've been good.
@Trai_Dep: It makes me upset to think that if anyone had demanded off the plane or had made any real fuss on the plane, they would be up on Federal charges. 9 hours should have been a riot.
i was stranded on a flight from Newark to Memphis for 1-2 Hrs and they gave us cereal (no milk), a banana, a cookie, and a drink. Go Continental :)
@sonneillon: But it was an international flight and they had to go through customs. I think that means you wouldn't spend a night in resort white collar jail, but federal pound-you-in-the-@$$ jail.
Actually I have no idea if that's even remotely true, I just saw a chance for an Office Space quote.
The US government should just suspected terrorists in planes for 12 hours at a time with no food or AC. They wouldn't even need torture..it would be built in!
Every time I've been stranded on a long delay, I've found that everyone lies about the reason. The airport lies and says the airline has to make requests when really the airport just doesn't want to call the necessary people in or pay overtime. The airline lies and says it's the airport's fault while making no effort to service the aircraft with food/water/toilet/air conditioning services, instead sending gate agents and service staff home so they don't have to pay overtime either.
Unfortunately there's no way for the passengers to know who to really blame, and in the end nothing is ever done about it.
They weren't at LAX, they were out in Ontario - which I'm pretty sure is not an international airport. It was too foggy for them to land at LAX.
Held captive?
Simmer down Fox...
I'm surprised that, of all the people who've been held on grounded airplanes for hours on end, we don't hear more about people losing their minds. If you have claustrophobia and you're still on the plane when the Xanax wears off, well, things aren't going to go well.
That's certainly true for me. You wouldn't want to be around me when the Valium wears off.
@sonneillon: I saw this last night. The bathrooms weren't working. And one lady couldn't get to her heart medication (although always keep medication as a carryon, no matter what)
To all of you who are saying that you rather get arrested.. You obviously have never been stuck on a plane.
They are never upfront about how long the delay is going to take (You don't know if you will be leaving in the next 15 minutes or if its a 4 hour delay). You normally get a vague update from the pilot every 15-30 minutes.
I once was stuck on an American Airlines flight for 7 hours while ground crew worked to fix a flat tire.. (How in the world does it take 7 hours to fix a flat). I recall only being served water and being extremely agitated that every announcement that was made promised that we would be getting on our way soon..
(First it was equipment problems, next they wanted to take us back to the terminal, another plane was in the terminal so they were waiting for ground crew, ground crew will be changing flat time, ground crew is still working on flat tire, Waiting for de-icing, waiting to taxi, radio tower changed the runway..)
On the flip side, I always have a pleasant experience on the Long Island Rail Road. When delayed, crew makes regular announcements, walks up and down the train appologizing and gives proper estimates as to how long the delay may take. It also feels that they make a real effort to either let you off the train or to find an alternate method to get you home.
Would it be at all possible to charge the airline with kidnapping? I think after 2 hours of nothing they are then holding me against my will.. Have a missed a conversation on this completely? :D
@HungryTuna: Oh yes. I was stuck in Shanghai on a United flight for 4 hours for similar reasons. While the bathrooms worked, no drinks or food were offered and I was only glad that I had internet on my phone (and that airport security didn't catch my water bottle or those of a few of my seatmates- Chinese people, me included, tend to have a low tolerance for bad conditions in enclosed spaces).
Heckuva job, Chertoff!
The sooner that assclown is out of his job at Homeland Security, the better. Can't they just let those people at least into the departure lounge with security around them?
I wonder if the airlines are liable for the health and well-being in a situation like this. I ask because I have type II diabetes, and my Mother has type I (insulin dependent.) Water and crackers wouldn't cut it if my Mom was stuck on a plane for 9 hours and her blood sugar started to crash. I'd be willing to risk getting arrested if it meant being able to get medical assistance in this kind of situation. NOBODY plans to be on a plane for 9 hours, so even a carry-on has limits, and while I agree that everybody should put their medication in a carry-on, if you only had to take some medication before you go to bed, and you had expected to be at your destination 9 hours earlier, you might just pack it in your checked luggage.
I can't believe that when I read they were fed water and crackers, the first thought in my mind was at least they were fed!
What if you had a baby? I mean like a previous poster said, no one plans for nine hours on a plane. Is the baby just supposed to starve?? They'd scream like maniacs. This should be illegal to keep people on a plane like that. I agree, it's kidnapping.
all it takes is one person, one hero, to complain of chest pains, and i'm pretty sure the plane is going back to gate pronto...
@CharlesjP: The problem is the way the ticket "contract" is created. They have full say on mode of transportation, length of travel and what cities you fly through just as long as you are able to reach your destination. If they fail to get you to your destination they are not required to but may refund your ticket.
They only way they get away with this is the argument of free market and that you can choose another mode of transportation.
This is typical for TACA. They stranded us overnight in the middle of nowhere, Honduras, because they delayed a flight whose destination airport closed at dusk, just so they could take care of a charter flight with the airplane. They then delayed the replacement flight for three hours.
@HungryTuna:
Speaking as a pilot, have you ever considered that the flight crew and the airline don't know how long it's going to be? They are usually working with an intricate web of different companies who service the airports, as well as ATC. Getting it all orchestrated isn't easy and isn't always timely. It's air travel. Delays happen. Get over it.
If one were to actually read the article, they would find that it seems the primary reason the passengers were kept on board was the lack of Customs Agents to process them. It's not that the airline didn't want to let them off the plane, they were prohibited from doing so because there was no Customs service to clear them all.
Well, that's infinitely safer than actually flying on TACA (seriously aka "The Almost Careful Airlines" due to extremely high accident rates)
@Pylon83: Speaking as a passenger, I expect the damn pilot to know the situation and what is going on. Its attitudes like yours that lead to the apathy that lets delays like this occur in the first place.
@Pylon83: I seriously hope I never get stuck flying with you as the pilot. I seriously doubt you are this accpeting and patient when it comes to your attempts at commuting. You have never once had road rage, never once yelled at a cab - why? well, because you understand that 'these things just happen'. Doubtful. Your simply defensive of this because it is a problem you have been a part of many times.
@exo:
I'm not an airline pilot. That said, I suppose my point was that this isn't a situation where the airline held the people on the plane for no reason. They were legally obligated to keep them on the plane until they could clear customs. There was no Customs service available. What were they supposed to do? There's no reason to vilify the airline over this.
@Pylon83: That's the most BS statement I've ever hear.. "delays happen. get over it."
I'm sorry but the expectation when I purchase my flight is that I will leave and arrive on time, any deviation from that I expect to be promptly notified and a good estimate of how long it will take and the reason.
You cannot expect us to believe that it is impossible to do that, I do however believe that the airline are incapable of doing that. Which is not an excuse!
@bigvicproton: @bigvicproton: @Pylon83: It mentions in several articles that the airline can get permission from the airport to deplane the passengers and hold them in a terminal rather than the airplane. The problem is that the airline didn't ask and the airport didn't offer. Additionally, the airport says that the airline said they would be taking off again, so they didn't send customs agents back to the airport. So yes, there may have been a reason to hold these people on the plane, but it stopped being valid after about 2 hours since that's how long it would have taken to get things straightened out if the airline/airport had been on their game
After a terrible flight ordeal coming back from my honeymoon, I told my new wife I hope she enjoyed the trip, because I won't be flying for a few years.
@tbax929:
Yeah, I'm the same way. I can *just* about pull myself together to fly, but trap me in anything that I can't get out of that isn't moving... badness ensues.
@Pylon83:
According to the article, TACA never _asked_ Customs for permission to get the people off the plane.
@brakemans: As a pilot myself I know from experience that control towers can't always help. If the visibility is that low and everyones filing instrument flight plans at once it can get pretty harry. No idea why they would wait 9 hours though, that seems a little ridiculous.
@CumaeanSibyl: After more than 2 hours stuck in an unmoving airplane, I get pretty punchy. This is part of why I fly JetBlue whenever possible: the TV goes a long way toward steadying me. Something about it being a live connection to the normal world keeps me sane when I'm trapped on the ground (which, for most of the times it has happened, has been JFK's fault rather than the airline's) and helps give me something to focus on when I'm five miles above the surface of the earth trying not to think about just how far that is to fall in a horrible fiery terrifying death.
(I'm maddeningly afraid of heights. I learned to handle the short flight from IAD to JFK when I was doing it twice a month but I'm flying to Puerto Rico tomorrow afternoon and there are just not enough drugs in the world...)
@CumaeanSibyl: I considered your statement and then thought "well wouldn't that be an awesome way to get off the plane!" but then I realized they'd just cuff you and gag you and let you rant. Then throw you in lockdown as a terrorist.
@CumaeanSibyl: This is why you never put prescription meds in checked luggage, it should be in your carry-on. Never check anything that would by its unavailability would impact your health. (I also carry a change of underwear and socks in my carry-on bag. Put them in a Ziploc bag and squeeze all the air out.)
I read this story on another blog yesterday. It appears the airline blamed the airport (no customs agents on site *at the time*, but they could have been called in). However, the airport says they did not receive a request for them to call in customs agents, and would have, had the request been made.
Basically, it's the airline being inconsiderate and incompetent. They changed the flight crew to avoid the FAA hours limits, and thought nothing of the passengers.
@Pylon83: Ummm... no, just no. And people wonder why US airlines don't stack up to their foreign counterparts. Example- Japan, the country where punctuality is highly valued. Result? Their air network runs like clockwork. China- bad service makes unhappy customers riot. Multiple times. Is that going to happen again? Of course not! But when I fly United? A 4-hour delay and everyone seems to act like it's normal.
@Pylon83: So maybe it would have been smarter to land at an airport a little farther off with Customs facilities, then?
I feel that a situation like this is extra frustrating. If anyone on the plane demands off, or makes too much noise, or says that they want to talk to someone, they could be up on Federal charges. I wish there was some kind of accountability for the airlines, nothing new I guess.