arriba

I have been reading on another site of storm delays at Newark airport that turned into horror stories. I don't have posting priviledges on that board or I would post my question there. The complaint was that fully loaded planes were backed from the gates and held 6 hours prior to 5.5 hr. flights and no food or beverages were served and people were screaming "go back to the gate". I thought legislation was passed several years ago when passengers were held 9 hours in the plane and not allowed into the terminal during storm delays. I thought passengers could no longer be held against their will. Anyone have more knowledge of this?

wliwl

I went to google news to try to get some scoop on this and ran across this lovely story:

NEWARK, N.J. -- A Tinton Falls man faces drunken driving and criminal trespass charges for allegedly driving onto a secure airfield at Newark Liberty International Airport, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey could face a federal fine over the incident, which authorities consider a major security breach.

Eugene Peters, 45, was able to drive his sport utility vehicle past a manned checkpoint Saturday night and drove around for 10 minutes inside a secure airfield with easy access to taxiways and runways, although he did not enter either of those, authorities said.

arriba

Thanks for the reply but that is not the case discussed on the other site. It was posted by a passenger who was furious that the plane was loaded even though the gate agents knew the storm was approaching and the plane would not be leaving. I don't think police were involved but it sounded like they might have been needed on that plane!!

J62

Tried but couldn't find anything about this on google. Can you post the link to the news story about this incident for us to see (from a credible source)?

rkkwan

www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=491589

Things happen when weather get nasty. It's unfortunate for everybody, but if you read through the thread you may understand why that happened - things like work-hour rules, ATC control, etc...

With our air travel infrastructure pretty stretched like they are now, things like this may happen some times, and no law will prevent that.

And you can see that being impatient or have a bad attitude is not going to help things.

nytraveler

When there are weather delays all sorts of things happen over which no one has any control. For instance, the planes loads, gets in line for take off, pilot decides he wants de-icing, plane gets back on end of line, weather gets worse, planes landing have priority over take offs and they end up with loaded planes and no clear gates to put them at for the passengers to disembark.

Or - the plane gets near the front of the line and the pilot thinks there he wants to de-ice again - and who can blame him. And you go to the end of the line again.

I'm not saying airlines always make the best decisions - and I've been stuck on the ground waiting to take off for Denver - for 4 plus hours with a bottle of water.

However, if the situation is really egregious the passengers have the option of calling their attorneys (who can contact the police on a kidnapping charge) or even call the police directly on 911. (No one will be arrsted - but if there's enough of a fuss the airline staff may make a MUCH bigger effort to find a gate for you to get off at.)

CaliNurse

Last week, had a call late at night that my daughter's flight from Texas would not be taking off that morning (12 hours later) because of bad weather --not locally, but at some of the places planes were coming from. She had to stay in town for almost 36 hours 'til the flight oculd be re-booked. It was an inconvenience to her. But she arrived home--36 hours later tahn originally scheduled-- safe, sound, and alive. Not to be dramatic, but it helps to keep perspective, Thanks to RKKwan and NY Traveler for their posts , reminding us that yes, stuff happens., and being impoatient and agry, while normal, is not going to help anything or anyone. I'm glad they kept the passengers off the plane in the first place, rather than board the plane,. Will try to find a google link to the othert story andpost here, if no one beats me to it.

rkkwan

Let me expand a little.

Passenger on board of this flight should think about what the alternative would be. If they pull back into the gate, they'll be even further behind for take off. Chances are they'll cancel the flight, or the pilots may be timed out.

So, they could be stranded in Newark, New Jersey for even longer. And one can imagine they're not the only flight that's affected, so you have thousands of unhappy people in the terminal, and I'm sure lines to the fast food places will be very long. Is that any better?

There's also a big difference between this case and NW's at MSP and particular DTW a few years ago. In that situation, most people who were stranded have already arrived in their airport. The flights are not waiting to take off. Instead, they have landed and NW can't prepare the gates to get them off.

arriba

For J62--it was in Flyertalk that I read the report.

I understand about a loaded plane being ready to take off when the storm passes and I can imagine an overburdened terminal,but it would have to be better than a tightly packed airplane that is not going anywhere anytime soon. What must the crew do to demands to be let off the plane? Was this addressed with the watered down Passengers Bill of Rights or whatever it was called when so many people were held on planes for much longer than this incident?

I am not involved in this but curious. I thought I remembered that if passengers demanded to be let off a plane in this situation, the airline had to do so.

rkkwan

The Northwest incident happened in 1999. Some legislators introduced the so-called "Passenger Bill of Rigths", but they didn't get pass.

Then came 9/11 in 2001, and the whole thing was all but forgotten.

If you want to ask questions on flyertalk.com, why not register there and ask?