Flight Home From DC Field Trip Turns Into Another Learning
Experience
Are you tired of reading about passengers stranded on airline
flights yet? If you are, you might as well skip this next story...
as those problems aren't limited to American and JetBlue.
Sunday night, a group of middle school students from Indiana
were stuck onboard their United Airlines flight, as they tried to
return home from a field trip to the nation's capitol.
"It was incredible and it was so hot. And it was really
uncomfortable and everybody was sweating," passenger Rocki Kaminski
told Chicago's WLS-TV of the six-hour ordeal on the tarmac at
Dulles International.
"There were a lot of people in the aisles and extremely hard to
move," added Mark Borowiak. "They only gave you one granola bar and
water." Ashton Balch, another passenger on United Flight 591, added
"If you wanted to go to the bathroom there was a line. You couldn't
fit through."
"I think it would have been better to take us back to the gate
because it was really cramped," said passenger Amanda Kollar.
After a six-hour ground hold, the 767 finally took off for the
two hour flight to O'Hare... but the wait wasn't over, even after
the plane touched down in Chicago.
"We all wanted to go home because we were tired. And once we got
to Chicago, we had to drive back to this area. And we were
wondering when we were going to get home," said student Kristen
Pesut.
Parents who waited anxiously for their children said the
situation is another example of why airline passengers need a "bill
of rights," an idea that has caught fire lately after a rash of
similar incidents in Texas and New York. One parent complained
United's website showed the flight had departed, when in reality it
had only left the gate.
"I would rather hear they don't know what's going on, rather
than put information on a web site that indicates the plane had
taken off when it hadn't," said Mark Borowiak.
"I think after like three hours or something, they should go
back to the gate. It would be much better if they were in the
terminal getting food or whatever instead of sitting on plane,"
said parent Carolyn Osborn.
A spokesman for the airline -- who did not want to appear on
camera, WLS noted -- apologized for the delay, saying it was
unavoidable.
"Though the unpredicted snow squalls and blizzard conditions
impacted our operations, we are always striving to do better for
our customers and improve their travel experience," the spokesman
said.