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Delta Passengers Stranded 7 Hours on Plane

Bad weather left plane stuck on tarmac until cancellation of flight

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.Com

July 29, 2008

For airline passengers board Delta Airlines flight 621, the time spent aboard the aircraft on the tarmac greatly exceeded the scheduled time in the air of the New York to Las Vegas flight. The 184 passengers were offered refunds and other perks to compensate for the delays.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the nasty weather resulted in 136 flight delays at New York's JFK Airport. In the case of Delta's flight 621, the flight was ultimately canceled after it was determined there was no end in sight to its wait. Then, and only then, did the plane return to the terminal so passengers could disembark.

It's the latest incident in a recent trend of weather-related foul-ups that have kept passengers stranded on the tarmac for hours and spawning a passengers' bill of rights movement.

It began December 29, 2006 when American Airlines flight 1348 from San Francisco to Dallas-Fort Worth sat on an Austin runway for nearly nine hours while fierce but slow-moving thunderstorms pounded the state of Texas.

Food, water, and patience were soon in short supply, along with working toilets. But passengers used their time to organize, and the airline passengers' bill of rights movement was born.

Since then, New York's JFK has been the scene of most of the extended delays. A Valentines Day 2007 ice storm froze operations at New York's JFK Airport, causing JetBlue to stranded passengers aboard jetliners for eight hours or more before cancelling many of its flights. Following the P.R. meltdown, the airline unveiled its own passengers' bill of rights.

Bipartisan legislation establishing a Federal Airline Passengers Bill of Rights was introduced in the U.S. Senate last year. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) authored a bill to ensure that travelers can no longer be unnecessarily trapped on airplanes for excessive periods of time or deprived of food, water or adequate restrooms.

Passengers' groups want airlines to allow passengers to get off the planes rather than spend hours sitting on the tarmac. However, airlines are extremely reluctant to agree to return planes to the gate during extended delays, arguing they would lose their place in line and fall even further behind schedule.

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