Rep. Schmidt Flies Under the Radar to Fix Stranded-Passengers Problem

There's a lot of yelling, screaming and -- gasp -- posturing in Washington about the need for an airline-passenger bill of rights.

In truth, it's hard to muster much sympathy for airlines that trap people on their grounded planes for hours on end, often without food, water and working bathrooms.

And it's easy for lawmakers to espouse outrage and promise legislative action in the wake of the JetBlue Airways debacle that resulted in delays of up to 11 hours on the John F. Kennedy International Airport tarmac in New York. That followed on the heels of other well-publicized incidents, including Dec. 29, when passengers trying to leave Austin were stuck on an American Airlines jet for eight hours.

But here's betting that after a few news conferences and some sound bites on the evening news, little will be done soon in the way of congressional mandates.

Perhaps figuring legislation will get stuck in a typical congressional holding pattern, Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, is going a different route.

Schmidt, a member of the House Transportation Committee and whose district includes part of Cincinnati, takes an interest in aviation issues, in part because of Delta Airline's hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport.

Passing a bill of rights might help get passengers water and food -- and unloaded sooner from grounded planes -- but it doesn't deal with the problems causing massive delays, Schmidt says.

Public-relations fiascos make for bad business, and the airlines will take steps to fix that, says Barry Bennett, Schmidt's chief of staff. The question is why these debacles have been happening in the first place.

The answer lies at least in part in an antiquated and inadequate air-traffic-control system.

The quick fix might be to say that the customer bill of rights JetBlue cobbled together isn't good enough and that Congress should trump it with a federal law. However, the smart money says that won't happen because of fierce lobbying by the airline industry and the inability of Congress most of the time to follow up on initial bellowings.

Schmidt is hoping that Democrats and Republicans can agree on air-traffic-control improvements later this year, when it's time to revamp Federal Aviation Administration policies and organization.

So Schmidt's office is attempting to identify the root causes of people being stranded on grounded planes. What FAA policies stand in the way of airlines making common-sense moves, such as returning to gates? What FAA air-traffic-control flaws prevent airlines from moving their planes out of weather-related trouble?

Last year, there were 7,600 incidents of planes grounded with passengers aboard for more than two hours. Schmidt is going to scrutinize 100 cases spread across different airlines, routes and locations in an attempt to pinpoint the main ingredients of the trouble.

She and her staff have met with officials of every major airline. They are working with the aviation subcommittee and hope to issue a report by the end of March.

Though Schmidt is in the minority, the Transportation Committee operates on a relatively bipartisan basis, and she's hoping some of her report's recommendations make it into the FAA reauthorization bill.

Schmidt replaced the popular Rob Portman of Cincinnati when he left Congress in 2005 to join the Bush administration as the U.S. Trade Representative. Schmidt soon gained notoriety when she appeared to call Rep. John Murtha, a decorated Marine combat veteran, a coward when the Pennsylvania Democrat called for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

She then survived a primary challenge and a tougher-than-expected general election in a district where fellow Republican Portman easily won re-election time after time.

Now, trying to work behind the scenes, Schmidt might make some headway on the aviation issue after the sound bites have faded.

Jonathan Riskind is chief of The Dispatch Washington bureau.

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