Passengers Sue After Plane Delay On Snowy Runway

[Midnight Mike]

Passengers Sue After Plane Delay On Snowy Runway
January 1, 2006

Six German airline passengers who said they were being held against their will on an aircraft stuck on the runway for hours during a snowstorm have filed "false imprisonment" charges, German police said on Saturday.

The passengers filed charges against the pilot of a British Airways Berlin-London flight that sat on the runway for seven hours before it could take off, a federal police spokesman said.

Passengers boarded the plane at Berlin's Tegel Airport at 7 a.m. on Thursday, but snow and ice delayed their takeoff. At 11:30 a.m. a man named Ingo Q. called a police emergency hotline on his cell phone and said he felt as if he was being "held hostage", the tabloid Bild reported.

Police boarded the plane and Ingo Q. ran forward and screamed "I want to get out of here." But only three people who only had hand luggage were allowed to leave the plane.

Shortly after noon, Ingo Q told police again that he wanted to leave the aircraft, still waiting on the snow-covered runway. Ingo, his wife and another couple from Biesdorf near Berlin were allowed off the plane at 12:48 p.m., and it finally took off at 2:36 p.m., seven hours late, Bild said.

The Berlin police spokesman said it was an unusual incident. "The plane stood there for a long time... It's difficult to say whether the passengers are allowed off or not. It's something they have to work out with the captain."

[PhilDernerJr]

While I think that this guy is just a whiner, I think it brings up an interesting debate.

How feasible is it for a passenger to get off the plane upon request while the plane is still on the ground during a delay? Should they or should they not have a right to leave?

[Futterman]

How feasible is it for a passenger to get off the plane upon request while the plane is still on the ground during a delay? Should they or should they not have a right to leave?

The way I see it, there are two scenarios.

One way is like what happened to me on a jetBlue flight out of JFK back in October. We pushed back from the gate and were faced with a 40 minute taxi over to 31L. This is a routine delay, and while relatively long, it wasn't anything super painful. Thank god for PTVs. Anyone bitching about this and demanding to get off the plane would have to be mental.

Another way, though, is like this BA flight. The weather is CLEARLY an extenuating circumstance. Thirty minutes, an hour, even an hour and a half I could see for a delay, but SEVEN hours is utterly pathetic and, at best, inhumane. I don't know what other factors kept them sitting on the runway for that long, but I do know that you have to be pretty dense to not return to the terminal. Anyone demanding to get off the plane in this case would be mental not to. In fact, 'anyone' would probably be me...

Brian

[Tom_Turner]

Yeah, I agree with Buck. 7 hours is Bull****. The aircraft is not going anywhere.

Longest I've seen wait are about 2 hours (for whatever reason) at EWR. No one should be locked up too much longer than that on the ground I don't think if the aircraft is not in any sort of queue.

The really awful case was Northwest (I think) a few years back at Detroit. These were aircraft that landed and did not have a gate...during a snowstorm. More understandable to be sure, but there ought to be some contingency plan to lessen the severity of that situation.

[PhilDernerJr]

Keep in mind he called the cops after 3 hours.

[Midnight Mike]

The bad part is that this was a short flight, so, no movie, no meal service, & limited drink service.... Passengers were not expecting a long flight, they were probably bored out of their minds......

[T-Bird76]

There is no reason an airline should do this to its passengers. If a flight is going to be held on the ground for more then two hours it shouldn't be released from the gate and the passengers should be allowed to deplane and wait in the terminal. Unfortunately this is easier said then done but airlines should look into changing their procedures to make it more customer friendly

[FlyingColors]

Sometimes this push back from the gate tactic is just to keep ones airlines 'on time performance' in good order.

All that counts is when the plane left the gate, not the flights, stupid!

And for some elderly people this is very dangerous, being immobile for so long can give someone a blood clot, not good.

[Idlewild]

I thought all the airlines learned their lessons from the NWA incident/s from a few years back.