JetBlue and American Could Face Millions in Fines Over Snowtober-Stranded Flights: Fi

[PhilDernerJr]

Honestly, Nick, you can of course have an opinion, but it wouldn't be a fair one without all the knowledge. And 3 hours in certain conditions may NOT be enough. It could be hours for the plane to even have a place for the airport to park it, then to wait for ground crews while they handle 20 other planes in the snow with minimal equipment and functionality.

Is it terrible? Of course. But until/unless I know more, I simply can't cast blame anywhere.

[PhilDernerJr]

What does that matter? It's like saying that someone who is bleeding from a gunshot wound should have never been shot while he lays there bleeding. You may have a great point but let us get him to the hospital and talk about what we can't undo later? Whatever the case of the diversion it's done and can't be undone. We know have a bunch of people in a very small, stuffy low air quality area with little or no food and water and overflowing bathrooms. Some may have special medical needs. Can we do something to get them off? Especially when it won't take much effort and argue about why this happened later?

Because you can't legally land at a place that doesn't have legal weather. Those airports aren't even an OPTION. Like the 3-hour rule, the legal weather is law as well.

As for climbing down airstairs it should be part of any contigency plan that an airport or airline has. We train fire and and rescue to save people in incidents why can't we have a plan that gets people off an aircraft and safely on the ground and into a terminal? It's boggles the mind.

You can't compare filled lavs to emergency situations, but yes, most airports can accommodate a plane or two. But you're talking about 20 planes. In snow. With no power. I'll bet that ground equipment even ran out of gas and couldn't service other planes for a while. What could they do if that was the case? You're making a ton of assumptions.

[mirrodie]

As Phil noted, and that so appropriately, while I may have an opinion, I won't play armchair anthropologist on the matter.

That said, I feel the same as Gotham.....that being, I've been saying for a while that its only a matter of time before there is mutiny onboard and someone pulls a Slater, blows the slide and you seen a line of passengers dropping their drawers on the tarmac.

[Gerard]

I've been saying for a while that its only a matter of time before there is mutiny onboard and someone pulls a Slater, blows the slide and you seen a line of passengers dropping their drawers on the tarmac.

This happened on the LIRR during that recent "Lightning Strike" debacle that shut down the system. Fed up passengers bolted from stalled trains and started walking on the tracks.