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American Strands Another Planeload of Passengers

Potato Chips Not Enough, Passengers Complain

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 7, 2007

• Appeals Court Rejects NY Passengers Rights Law • Feds Unveil New Airport Policy • Newark Delays Trigger Passenger Rights Bill in NJ • Continental Passengers Fume Over New Tarmac Ordeal • American Strands Another Planeload of Passengers • Congress Wary of Airline Promises • Air Travelers Association Opposes Passenger Bill of Rights • Latest Ice Storm Chips Away at Travelers' Patience • U.S. Air Travel System at the Breaking Point • Long Tarmac Delays Still Common • Winter Weather Wreaks Havoc with United Flights • Feds Want Probe of Airline Strandings • Airline Passenger Bill Of Rights Introduced In Senate • JetBlue Sits Out NY Storm While Others Fly • JetBlue Unveils "Passengers Bill Of Rights" • JetBlue Offers Refunds, Free Tickets To Stranded Passengers • Passengers Organize After American Airlines Stranding --- • More about Travel ...

Oh, no, not again.

Even after a wave of extended tarmac delays prompted Congress to consider a Passenger Bill of Rights, American Airlines flight 556 evolved from a two-and-a-half flight into an 11-hour nightmare.

Thunderstorms in Dallas-Fort Worth forced a diversion of the outbound Phoenix flight from Dallas to Midland, Texas. More than 200 passengers were left sitting in the plane for more than eight hours, an experience that mirrored other such incidents that occurred during the winter.

Fog, snow, and ice storms across the country caused problems in Denver Dec. 20, Dallas Dec. 29, New York and Philadelphia Feb. 14, and the Northeastern U.S. on March 16. Cancellations, delays, diversions, and long stretches of idling on tarmacs hit passengers of American, Delta, United, US Airways, and JetBlue, among others.

Passengers from some of those planes have testified before Congress about cabin conditions that included shortages of food and water plus non-working toilets and poor cabin ventilation. After nine of its planes were stranded at its JFK hub on Valentine's Day, JetBlue issued its own Passenger Bill of Rights.

Other airlines have also insisted they could police themselves and avoid any repeats of the winter incidents.

Potato Chips

In the latest event, American tried to ease the discomfort of passengers by sending pizza and potato chips to the stranded plane and attempting to roll a portable stairway to the aircraft. The former was unsufficient for the number of people, however, while the latter was declared unsafe and therefore unusable.

Like JetBlue after the Feb. 14 fiasco, American has apologized to affected passengers and issued vouchers -- good for $500 in this case.

Although several passengers from American 556 told USA TODAY their odyssey felt like a hijacking and kidnaping, the Air Transport Association gave the airline high marks for attempting to relieve their suffering.

According to the ATA's David Castelvetter, "By all accounts, American handled it well, given the severe weather conditions."

As in previous incidents, passengers complained of poor communication from the airline during the time they were stranded. They said they were never told why they couldn't leave the plane, for example.

On the date of the incident, April 24, bad weather in its Dallas hub forced American to divert 129 flights, a record for any date other than Sept. 11, 2001, when all planes were grounded immediately after terrorists used planes to attack New York and Washington.

With the summer season approaching, airlines are warily watching the skies. Thunderstorms routinely cause more delays, cancellations, and diversions than winter weather conditions such as snow and ice storms.

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