To its credit, Continental Airlines has publicly apologized to the 47 passengers essentially trapped overnight on one of its small Twin Cities-bound commuter flights redirected to Rochester late last Friday because of stormy weather. But what the passengers -- and the flying public -- deserve most is a complete explanation and a guarantee from Continental and other airlines that this will not happen again anywhere.
It's not hard to imagine the wretched conditions inside the small crowded jet as the overused toilet reeked, tired babies cried, passengers sweated and tensions mounted. Under no circumstances should Continental's decisionmaking have produced such a botched outcome: keeping everyone on board for six hours without even arranging for food or drink. It's as if someone at the airline forgot the plane carried people instead of cargo.
Despite its welcome apology, Continental's explanation has yielded more questions than answers. A Continental spokeswoman on Tuesday would not talk on the record with an editorial writer. A spokeswoman for ExpressJet Airlines, a company operating the Continental flight, told Star Tribune reporters that passengers couldn't go into the airport because security screeners had left for the night. The flight from Houston landed in Rochester around midnight. ExpressJet spokeswoman Kristy Nicholas said passengers only could have gone into the Rochester airport "if we had the resources to allow the customers to deplane safely and were able to comply with federal regulation."
Developments this week cast doubt on that account. On Monday, Rochester's veteran airport manager, Steve Leqve, disputed the need for security screeners, saying passengers could have come into the airport and stayed on the secure side of the terminal -- which had vending machines and clean restrooms. Leqve said all decisions to keep passengers on the plane were made by Continental's dispatch operations in Minneapolis.
Delta also had a plane redirected to Rochester that night. Those passengers stayed on the aircraft for several hours as pilots waited in vain for the weather to pass -- not a great situation either. But Delta also made arrangements in case the plane remained grounded. Around 3 a.m., Rochester City Lines deployed a bus to the airport and drove the passengers 80 miles to Minneapolis. A number of bus services in Rochester and Minneapolis answer phones 24 hours a day. Continental could have arranged a charter, too.
Make no mistake: This was Continental's problem, not just ExpressJet's. When things went wrong, it was the big airline's responsibility to step in.
On Tuesday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he wants answers from Continental. But LaHood should be pressing all airlines. Northwest garnered national headlines in 1999, when a Detroit blizzard kept passengers on planes for hours. More recently, JetBlue and American Airlines have had weather-related debacles stranding travelers on the tarmac.
It's common sense to get passengers off planes as soon as possible; a federal law shouldn't be needed for airlines to act. But legislation that would outline passengers' options to get off a delayed plane is in the works, and it's likely to be fast-tracked after the fiasco in Rochester. The airline industry is concerned about its costs, and some travel experts say it needs refining to spell out options for passengers once they deplane.
But the airlines' mishandling of this ongoing problem means the bill will likely sail through. They have only themselves to blame.
