They Had a Little Snowstorm in the Northeast Recently …

Nov. 16, 2011

 … which led to a number of airliners sitting on the ramp at Hartford, to which flights had been diverted, for as many as seven hours. In response, U.S. DOT has announced that it will hold a forum on November 30 to explore ways to address future aircraft diversions.

Might have been a good idea to have held the forum before Congress mandated that airlines can’t hold passengers hostage on the airfield for extended periods of time. It’s hard to blame the airlines for what happened at Hartford – so it seems it would be hard to justify fining them.

That said, how do officials at Hartford’s Bradley International or at FAA explain allowing hundreds of passengers to be held captive in aluminum capsules for hours on end? A passenger who buys an airline ticket doesn’t expect that the purchase allows some governmental entity to hold them hostage. It is just wrong. Personally, I think that in that situation any passenger would be justified in opening a door, activating the escape slide, and walking across the airfield to the terminal.

Regarding the DOT forum, ACI-NA president Greg Principato says, “At the forum, we look forward to discussing how we can manage diverted flights more effectively starting with how the airlines and FAA make decisions regarding where to divert, long before aircraft are stuck on the ground. Airports stand ready to assist the FAA and the airlines with information about how many diverted aircraft they can accept, what types of aircraft they can accommodate, what facilities and equipment are available to service these aircraft, and what limitations exist with respect to accommodating international passengers.”

Obviously, during a massive snowstorm that caused this situation, FAA’s foremost challenge is getting airliners on the ground safely. And the agency and the controllers did that, very much to their credit. But then the industry dropped the ball.

This needs work, and as Principato suggests it needs all parties considering the possibilities and the potential responses. We don’t need any more Congressional mandates; we need better coordination. And we need more compassion for the people who are being held prisoner. As someone who has been held captive for a “mere” two to three hours in a fuselage, just steps away from a terminal, I can attest that this is the equivalent of unreasonable search and seizure. It’s just plain wrong. While it is probably unrealistic to expect that airports like Hartford can have resources like extra buses sitting around in case a natural disaster hits, it is not unreasonable for the industry to adopt a standard that says we will treat passengers like human beings and not hold them captive. If it requires airport staffers to personally escort each passenger through the blowing snowdrifts, so be it.

Thanks for reading. jfi