{"id":1000411,"date":"2007-02-16T08:21:06","date_gmt":"2007-02-16T13:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/travel\/2007\/02\/16\/stuck-on-the-ground-again\/"},"modified":"2007-02-17T16:35:31","modified_gmt":"2007-02-17T21:35:31","slug":"stuck-on-the-ground-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/travel\/2007\/02\/16\/stuck-on-the-ground-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuck on the Ground Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

How many more stories like this one<\/a> are we going to have to hear before Congress does something? The fundamental problem is that it is cheaper and simpler for the airlines to keep passengers crammed in deep vein thrombosis-inducing seats for ten hours on the slim hope that they might be able to take off than to allow them to get off the plane. Never mind what the passengers want.<\/p>\n

Here’s a modest proposal: any plane that spends two hours on the ground after passengers have boarded must return to the terminal and disembark. No exceptions. No leeway for “We’re now tenth in line” or “We think the weather’s clearing up now. Just a few more minutes.” If the plane isn’t taxiing down the runway, it goes back to the terminal. If the gates are full, then pull up the stairs and let the passengers walk. This would give passengers who want to leave or make other arrangements the opportunity. Other passengers could at least walk around, use a full-sized toilet, get something to eat or drink, and so forth. <\/p>\n

Frankly I’m hesitant to suggest additional regulations for such a marginal industry that’s usually about one broken propeller away from bankruptcy, but sometimes the egregious nature of an industry’s own incompetence and customer hostility demands action, even if it pushes a marginal company or two over the edge.
\n<\/p>\n

Action<\/h2>\n

Barbara Boxer (D-CA) plans to introduce legislation<\/a> in the Senate for a passengers’ bill of rights. Mike Thompson (D-MT) is introducing it in the House. Airline lobbysists will doubtless try to have it watered down, but maybe if we can generate enough heat and light then it can be pushed through with some teeth.<\/p>\n

You can sing a somewhat vague petition<\/a> about this if you like. <\/p>\n

One thing we cannot allow is for the airlines to claim “safety reasons” or “security reasons” for not allowing passengers to debark. This is a loophole big enough to fly an Airbus A380 through since the airlines will be the one who decide what’s safe and what’s not. I’m reminded of the riverboat gambling bill in Louisiana a few years back which required boats to sail before gambling unless navigation conditions prohibited it. Wouldn’t you know it? Every single day the captain noticed strange, submerged objects no one else could see that prevented him from sailing. <\/p>\n

Here’s the deal: two hours on the plane without leaving the ground. The flight disembarks, and passengers are entitled to a refund. No exceptions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How many more stories like this one are we going to have to hear before Congress does something? The fundamental problem is that it is cheaper and simpler for the airlines to keep passengers crammed in deep vein thrombosis-inducing seats for ten hours on the slim hope that they might be able to take off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[410],"class_list":["post-1000411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","tag-flash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1000411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1000411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1000411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1000411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}