Mon, Oct 24, 2011
Passengers Flew 10 Hours, Then Sat For Another Nine After
Diversion For Fog
Ugly tales of passengers pushed to their emotional or physical
breaking points by lengthy airline tarmac delays have pretty much
disappeared from the news in the US since the Department of
Transportation was enabled to hand down stiff fines. But you can
still be trapped inside a plane for many hours if you travel
elsewhere in the world.
USA Today reports police were called onto a diverted Air India
777 which had flown for 10 hours on its route from Mumbai to London
Heathrow, only to be diverted to London Gatwick because of fog.
After another nine hours on the sitting plane, passengers started
getting very frustrated, and police were called to the airport.
The Times of India reports the plane's crew was inexperienced in
dealing with fog at Heathrow, leading to the diversion. Then, the
crew reached their legal limit for duty hours at Gatwick, so the
passengers sat while another crew was brought in. Passengers got
frustrated, and said that while British passengers were allowed to
disembark, foreigners were forced to sit without food. A cab can
get passengers from Gatwick to Heathrow in under an hour, but it
took over nine hours by jet.
The London Telegraph reports that officers found passengers
angry at the lack of information about when they might be able to
either get off the plane or continue on to Heathrow. Gatwick
officials say they provided water for the passengers, but couldn't
do much else because the airline would not allow the passengers to
disembark. No food was brought on the plane, say airport officials,
because the airline wanted to use its own caterers over at
Heathrow.
Such an incident in the US could have been very costly for Air
India. Following successful implementation of a three-hour rule for
domestic flights, the US DOT expanded its stranding limits to
international flights, which must release passengers before
reaching four hours on the tarmac. The fines for exceeding that
limit could be as high as $27,500 per passenger affected.
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