AP Features, February 16th, 2007
Senator plans passengers' bill of rights
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Sen. Barbara Boxer 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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