Thu, Apr 26, 2007
Group "Outraged" By Latest Ground Holds At AUS
It's become a situation you can bank on: storms over Dallas-Fort
Worth International Airport mean stranded jets on the ground in
Austin.
Such was the case late Tuesday afternoon, when strong
thunderstorms over the DFW metroplex forced several American
Airlines flights to divert to Austin-Bergstrom International
Airport... leaving passengers stranded in the jets for up to six
hours, according to the Coalition for Airline Passengers' Bill of
Rights.
PBOR issued the following statement Wednesday from its founder
and executive director, Kate Hanni, on reports that passengers
aboard the American Airlines flights were trapped for up to six
hours -- a situation similar tolast December's grounding of several jets
in Austin, that time due to an ice storm at DFW --
with passenger accounts indicating similar instances of food and
water quickly running out, as well as intolerable conditions as a
result of overflowing toilets.
"On behalf of our 15,000 members worldwide, words cannot begin
to describe the outrage and indignation felt after hearing reports
of the latest passenger strandings aboard American Airlines jets in
Austin. For the flying public it's deja-vu -- no food, no
running water, overflowing toilets that make six hours trapped on a
plane an intolerable and unbearable experience. For the airlines,
this is just more of the same utter disregard for the flying public
and the will of the federal government and Members of Congress who
are demanding that the airlines stop lying to passengers and end
their deceptive tactics.
"We are encouraged by the Department of Transportation's plan to
investigate the airlines' unrealistic scheduling and hiding of
delay information. These efforts are necessary to prevent
additional passengers from becoming trapped victims aboard
airplanes as a result of this chronic problem. The airlines must
realize that the federal government and Congress are demanding
accountability and taking the necessary steps to protect the flying
public.
"We also applaud the DOT Inspector General's efforts to enforce
laws requiring airlines to publish information on flights that are
'chronically late'. Airlines must be made to comply with the
federal requirements to provide a flight's on-time performance when
requested by a customer."
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