47 trapped on 'nightmare' flight to the Twin Cities

[FA Mikey]

When Link Christin boarded a Continental Airlines flight from Houston to the Twin Cities on Friday night, he expected to be on the ground in about three hours and ready for a comfy bed.

Instead, he was among 47 passengers who spent the night trapped inside a small airplane, parked at the Rochester airport, complete with crying babies and the aroma of over-used toilets.

The ExpressJet Airlines that operated the plane says the flight was diverted to Rochester because of Twin Cities thunderstorms, and that airline regulations prevented passengers from getting off the plane.

Christin is incredulous that the airline couldn't figure out an option besides trapping passengers on the plane for nine hours.


full article here


A less then 90 minute drive to MSP. Will the airlines ever learn? As a crew member or passenger I would be pissed.

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

One of these days someone will just open an exit door or window. (Slide or non slide). There is not a jury that would convict.

 

[oldiesfan]

That was bull(bleep) to put the passengers through that, and on a Jungle Jet no less. Can you say lawsuit?

Why didn't someone call 911 and tell the local police they were being held hostage?

Or blow the emergency exits and get the hell off the plane and into the terminal? Security screening my a**, the gates are within the sterile area.

Good job ExpressJet. :angry:

 

[tech2101]

Unreal.

I think I would have been experiencing chest pains and made a 911 call.

The paramedics operate 24/7...

 

[HottootrotNyc]

Also stated in the article, TSA has gone home and considering the last flight of the night into ROC is around 9 p.m., that means all the agents, ramp, and any other ground personal had gone HOME. Therefore, nothing could be done! We don't trap people like most airlines, such as Delta, Jetblue, AA, and so on. If they were able to get them off they would of been taken off. I have have never sat more than 3 hours EVER, that is our airlines limit, both mainline and our express carriers. So the circumstances were so they had no way of letting them out, until personel showed in the morning.

 

[FA Mikey]

We don't trap people like most airlines, such as Delta, Jetblue, AA, and so on.

I guess you do. see the full article.

 

[HottootrotNyc]

Heres a few for you, mean while this was during the day when they COULD have done something.....


Delta Flight 6499, SEVEN HOURS on the tarmac : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R06dAgpmmbg


USAirways Sucks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JweAat7ZhPM


Also at Continental we provide FOOD for FREE, BEVERAGES, and WATER. So by all means check out what your own airlines do during regular working hours and check to see if you can find anything like that about Continental.. You won't!

 

[Shrek]

Did the flight crew not time out? That was a good point about the ground crews, it is possible that the employee's at ROC had already gone home for the evening BUT dispatch usually calls ahead and lets ops know that they are getting a diverson. Very difficult to judge without having all the facts. If the ground crew was not available then why not take the aircraft to another airport? Were any other aircraft diverted to ROC? Just an unfortunate situation all the way around. I know it was difficult for the paxs but I'm sure it was no picnic for the flight attendant either who was also held against his/her will. Dispatch was aware that this flight was there for this length of time, maybe thats a place to start.....i don't know, just tossing it out there.

 

[FA Mikey]

Also at Continental we provide FOOD for FREE, BEVERAGES, and WATER. So by all means check out what your own airlines do during regular working hours and check to see if you can find anything like that about Continental.. You won't!

Why so defensive. continental screwed up, just like AA, DAL UAL and all the rest. As much as you like to think everything is perfect and CAL makes no mistakes. They do, and there was no food, just a crowded plane and a smelly lav

 

[FA Mikey]

ExpressJet spokeswoman Kristy Nicholas said the passengers could have entered the terminal only "if we had resources to allow the customers to deplane safely and were able to comply with federal regulations." Nicholas added that "upon arrival of TSA [security personnel] ... at approximately 6 a.m. Central, the customers were allowed to deplane the aircraft."

However, Rochester airport manager Steven Leqve disagreed with some USAviation posters today, "saying that while screeners had gone home for the night, passengers could have "come into a secure area of the building."
"If it were my decision, I would have deplaned the passengers and let them mill about the building," Decisions about what to do with passengers ultimately belong to the airline, he said.

Leqve said here is what happened that night:

After the plane landed, a station manager in Rochester made contact with a Continental dispatcher at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport about how to handle the delay. Continental decided to keep the plane on the Rochester runway in hopes the weather would clear up. A brief window did open up about 2 a.m., but conditions quickly deteriorated. By the time 4:30 a.m. rolled around, the shift for the plane's crew had ended.

"I'm sure they were hoping the weather would clear and they could move on," Leqve said.

Airport screeners start work at 4:30 a.m., but passengers weren't allowed off the plane until 6 a.m. Leqve said he doesn't know why there the passengers weren't allowed off closer to 4:30 a.m.

full article here

 

[PHX Flyer]

never ... more than 3 hours EVER, that is our airlines limit, both mainline and our express carriers.

That's a blatant lie. I don't doubt that CO probably has some written policy to that effect. However, what's the point, if they are not enforced? I have spent 6 hours on the ground in a B757 myself (yes, a Continental B757), before taking off for a transatlantic flight to Cologne - which amounts to close to 14 hours total on regular passenger B757! Since the FAs were not allowed to use the galleys, the only food served during the six hours on the ground was a 1oz bag of pretzels and a cup of water. Sorry, Continental is not a bad airline, but it differs only in nuances from the others, not by an order of magnitude, like you want us to believe.

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Did the flight crew not time out? That was a good point about the ground crews, it is possible that the employee's at ROC had already gone home for the evening BUT dispatch usually calls ahead and lets ops know that they are getting a diverson.

CO/CO Express does not serve RST, therefore no ground staff. Offline diversion do present problems for all parties; no new story had mention what, if any, carrier Express had made arrangement with. THe "No TSA screeners" excuse is a bit strange. At most airports the sterile are is locked off at night, with no entry. The people should have been let into a closed gate room.
Of course we are dealing with TSA here. And RST airport's ideas about "Gee, what will TSA say when they find out". But those poor people should be have been allowed to deplane!
Eight hours on a barbie jet is simply wrong.

And most ERJ-145 have integral airstairs. No need to blow an escape slide, even if no one is around to run a jetway or portable steps.

As I said earlier. For all these "trapped onboard" incidents, it's amazing that no one has simply opened an exit. I would have been sorely tempted.

 

[tech2101]

Also stated in the article, TSA has gone home and considering the last flight of the night into ROC is around 9 p.m., that means all the agents, ramp, and any other ground personal had gone HOME. Therefore, nothing could be done! We don't trap people like most airlines, such as Delta, Jetblue, AA, and so on. If they were able to get them off they would of been taken off. I have have never sat more than 3 hours EVER, that is our airlines limit, both mainline and our express carriers. So the circumstances were so they had no way of letting them out, until personel showed in the morning.

Trying to defend the carrier after this debacle is like spitting in the wind.

There is no defense.

What is so bad is that Continental was the first major to write their own passenger bill of rights.

Yes, I know. the incident happened on Express Jet, but the pictures of the aircraft show the Continental logo.

Damage done.

Do yourself a favor. Stop defending the indefensible.

It goes away much faster.

 

[700UW]

DL offered to deplane the passengers and was in contact with CO dispatch and CO said no, the airport director said there was nothing preventing the passengers from being let off the plane and into the airport, as the airport is staffed 24/7 and a NW A320 landed and deplaned after 3am, so CO's excuses are full of BS.

 

[Ch. 12]

1. Isn't this RST rather than ROC? ROC would have been one helluva diversion
2. The TSA issue wasn't with the pax being let OFF the plane but rather with them being allowed back ON. I say just let them off and by 5am, kick them out to pre-security and have them get screened again. Nothing should have precluded them from being allowed off the a/c
3. If I were the airport manager, I would have returned to work - even if it was after hours - and called others to come in as well. Sense of duty.

There is no reason that the pax couldn't be allowed off. While other issues in recent memory were weather related in the current city or were with hopes of departing, this one was just a blatant refusal to allow pax to get off.