I think in my top 10 list, if I don't think too hard about it, is getting stuck in a airplane on a runway for multiple hours at a time. I think the worst I've experienced was about 1-2 hours... but 8 or 12 hours? With overflowing toilets, no water, no food, crying children (and adults) cranky attendants sitting... sitting... sitting

Yet we hear about this nightmare playing out over and over again and I secretly hope to hear about airline executives being trapped in a porta-potty on a hot day for several hours as revenge.

But now that the Bush era is over, the government is once again thinking about the consumer and now you can't just leave people rotting on an airplane any old time you feel like it without experiencing some pain.

Horray!

In a First, Airlines Fined for Stranding Passengers (http://slatest.slate.com/id/2236606/entry/4/)

I don't see what you're so thrilled about.

That $175K fine will simply be passed on the next passengers. So now you'll have the privilege of paying to wait.

And while you're thinking about that, consider the reason they were waiting: they didn't have a terrorist detector available. You're paying for those now, too, to make you wait for nothing, and spy on/harass you in order to justify their cushy government job.

Frankly, I don't understand why people take it. Six hours? I would expect to see a mob beating down the door and demanding their money back. Don't tell me some petite stewardess is going to hold them back, either.

Frankly, I don't understand why people take it. Six hours? I would expect to see a mob beating down the door and demanding their money back. Don't tell me some petite stewardess is going to hold them back, either.

But that 20 centimeter thick locked door might do it ...

I do agree though that it makes more sense to force the CEOs to suffer through the same treatment they give to their customers, rather than a (compared to the annual budget of the airline) symbolic fine.


Eri

But that 20 centimeter thick locked door might do it ...Last I checked, every airplane has emergency exits, and you're even informed exactly where they are.

Besides, if all the passengers stood up and demanded to be let off, they would be. Have you ever seen what an angry mob can do?I do agree though that it makes more sense to force the CEOs to suffer through the same treatment they give to their customers, rather than a (compared to the annual budget of the airline) symbolic fine.Why do you blame the CEOs?

Blame the idiot voters who vote for fear-mongering politicians who place requirements for terrorist detectors at airports who do nothing but suck up taxpayer dollars and waste everyone's time.

All the post-2001 anti-terrorism nonsense has cost us a fortune in lost dollars and productivity, and has yielded us absolutely nothing. The best way to defeat the terrorists would have been to shrug off the bombing and rebuild. Not only would the threat level be lower (because we'd be showing that terrorism doesn't work, the opposite of what we're actually doing), but our economy would be trillions ahead.

Last I checked, every airplane has emergency exits, and you're even informed exactly where they are.

Knowing where the door is does not mean you can also open it.


Besides, if all the passengers stood up and demanded to be let off, they would be. Have you ever seen what an angry mob can do?


I have yes. And the riot police was out in full force to try to control them. 200 passengers threatening to inflict bodily harm on the flight attendants (who have as much to say about the decisions as the passengers) might be able to force those doors opened, but there would not be waiting the welcoming arms of their family (and rightfully so).
What the company did to their passengers was inexcusable, but that does not justify threatening people who are equally trapped and powerless to change the decisions leading to that situation.


Why do you blame the CEOs?


Generally the bucket has to stop somewhere. While technically the president is in charge of everything and thus responsible, practically speaking you have to put accountability with the people who make the actual decisions. In the case of airlines it tends to be the people who set the policies, not the people who enforce them. Mind, I do think that the people who blindly enforce silly or harmful policies are equally accountable (and the judges of the Nurnberg trials agree with me I might add). In this case the people who kept passengers and crew locked up in a plane for hours and had the power to do something about it (i.e. not necessarily the flight crew if those tried to get the people out) are guilty. Also the people who set the policy that people are not allowed out of a plane until some condition is met are guilty of what happened as a result of that policy. They are even more guilty because according to the article they knew that their policy was not required and other more humane options were available but chose not to inform their employees of those options (presumable because those would cost the company more money).


Blame the idiot voters who vote for fear-mongering politicians who place requirements for terrorist detectors at airports who do nothing but suck up taxpayer dollars and waste everyone's time.


yes, well, that is both impractical and undemocratic. We do not generally lock up people for being stupid in free countries, only when they are dangerous or actively harmful to others.


Eri

Generally the bucket has to stop somewhere.That's so cute! :) I can just see a walrus with his bucket now http://beldar.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/06/03/walrus_bucket1.jpg

People being stranded on air planes has nothing to do with the government, it's the stupid policies put in place by the airlines. Read the article, Tuda.

The passengers get screened before they enter the planes nowadays. I have never been screened to leave an airplane or airport. International flight customs checking for foreign fruit might be different though.

Those passengers can sue for unlawful imprisonment though on the above pretenses. At most they should have been held for an hour until they figure out exactly what is going on, when weather is expected to clear up and things of that nature. They should have been allowed to dismount the aircraft under those conditions to hang around the airport, go grab food and things like that at their leisure.

quote"Yet we hear about this nightmare playing out over and over again and I secretly hope to hear about airline executives being trapped in a porta-potty on a hot day for several hours as revenge"

Obligatory army reference. Porta Potties on a hot day with humidity really sucks. I preferred the shovel and the woodline method.

People being stranded on air planes has nothing to do with the government, it's the stupid policies put in place by the airlines. Read the article, Tuda.Why did they put those policies in place?

Do you think they make money by keeping planes grounded, and working employees on overtime, while waiting for a terrorist detector to show up?

It's all part of the same collective paranoia.

If they don't hire the terrorist detector at every possible stage, then the media will vilify them for being lax on security.

Or if someday there is a terrorist (which a clueless $12/hour terrorist detector would never have detected anyway), and they don't hire the terrorist detector, the greedy families of all the victims will sue the airlines for billions of dollars.

See, if the government hadn't instituted these terrorist detectors in the first place, those passengers wouldn't have been stranded there. But now that that's the norm, the airlines have no choice.

YOU (collectively) voted for this. Don't blame the CEOs, blame yourself.

Knowing where the door is does not mean you can also open it.That's why there are instructions printed right on the door, and in the little card in the seat pocket in front of you.200 passengers threatening to inflict bodily harm on the flight attendants (who have as much to say about the decisions as the passengers) might be able to force those doors opened, but there would not be waiting the welcoming arms of their family (and rightfully so).Who said anything about bodily harm? I just don't see how two pilots and a couple of stewardesses are going to hold back an angry mob. Or why they would want to in the first place.In the case of airlines it tends to be the people who set the policies, not the people who enforce them.The American public set those policies. See my response above.

The CEOs are the ones who are powerless, forced to bend to the public will.