Why was Delta Air Lines flight 745 stuck on the tarmac 392 minutes?

delta jetAlmost seven hours on the tarmac? Have these people lost their minds?

Every month, when the Transportation Department releases its latest report card, I find myself asking the same question: Why?

It only takes about five hours to fly from New York to Portland. But Delta’s flight 745 spent two more hours (392 minutes) on the tarmac on July 26, according to the DOT.

Delta lists the reason as being caused by the “air carrier” according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Here are the five most-delayed flights:

1. Delta Air Lines flight 745 from New York JFK to Portland, OR, 7/26/09 – delayed on tarmac 392 minutes
2. Continental Airlines flight 432 from Houston to New York LaGuardia, 7/29/09 – delayed on tarmac 310 minutes
3. Continental Airlines flight 1176 from Chicago O’Hare to Newark, NJ, 7/29/09 – delayed on tarmac 299 minutes
4. US Airways flight 17 from New York JFK to Phoenix, 7/26/09 – delayed on tarmac 276 minutes
5. JetBlue Airways flight 34 from New York JFK to Rochester, NY, 7/26/09 – delayed on tarmac 268 minutes

(For details on the airline industry’s tarmac delays, have a look at this helpful page from BTS.)

This shouldn’t be allowed.

I mean, is there anyone out there who thinks it’s right to keep a passengers on the tarmac for almost seven hours?

Anyone?

(Photo: James Willamor/Flickr Creative Commons)

  • http://rnratwdw.blogspot.com Timbo

    This has never happened to me, but if it ever does, I have a plan: I will make such a scene that the police will have to come on board and take me off the plane, then they’ll have to let everyone off.

  • frostysnowman

    It seems like avoiding JFK would also be a good idea.

  • Bill

    There is supposed to be a recession, with fewer planes in the air – which means less congestion at the terminals. There is no reason for this.
    If you’re on the ground for more than an hour, you should be offered the abiity to get off the plane and rebook another flight at no cost.

    Furthermore, airlines that keep passengers on the plane whilst sitting are not i the process of getting the passenger from point A to point B…so they are not doing what they’ve been hired todo. They should be prosecuted…392 minutes? Completely unacceptable, particularly considering how small their seats are.

  • Chicky

    Timbo, me and you both! I’ll brandish my Medic-Alert bracelet and start screaming lawsuit! LOL.

  • Eric Smith

    Great idea, Chicky! Tell the flight attendant your insulin is in your checked luggage and you’ll go into shock without it.

    This is another instance of a law having unintended consequences. It’s against federal law to interfere with the operation of a plane or it’s flight crew. This is to ensure safety, of course. Except the definition of “interfere” is ambiguous enough that the airlines use that law to keep passengers imprisoned on the plane. If you called 911 from a plane stranded on the tarmac, you could be charged with a federal crime. How twisted is that?

  • SirWired

    Well, at least the delay got logged as “air carrier” instead of “ATC” (usually self-inflicted, especially at NYC airports) or “weather” (no such thing as a seven-hour “weather” delay.)

    But hey, according to the airlines, regulation won’t fix anything, and they should be allowed to “self-regulate” tarmac delays, and put in “model plans” (that don’t have to be followed), and create commissions, task forces, and blue-ribbon panels to study the problem.

    The time for all that is over.

    SirWired

  • Bob

    There may be fewer air travelers but there are more planes. Think regional jets.

    This is a difficult issue. I think we can all agree that nobody should be locked in a metal tube for 9 hours with no food, water, toilets, and air conditioning. Prisoners get better treatment than that. But I have also never heard anyone come up with a good rule on this issue that makes sense.

    Given how long it takes to empty and reboard a large plane, how do you know when to draw the line and say at what point the airline MUST let the passengers off the plane?

    By way of example, I was on a plane that was delayed due to weather. But that delay was extended by another 50 or 60 minutes or so since the plane turned back to the gate instead of waiting in line on the tarmac. Sometimes it’s better to just wait it out.

  • Khalaf Haddad

    With three events at the same airport on the same day, I wonder what else was happening.

  • bkg

    I have an idea: Enact a federal law that says if a plane is on a tarmac for more than 2 hours, the airline’s president and board chairman will be arrested and confined to an airline seat in a small, unventilated closet with a bucket of raw sewage. They must remain there – without food or water – until the passengers get off the plane (either at the origin or destination).

    I suspect that airline policies and practices would change fairly quickly.

  • Gary

    As many times as I’ve been stuck in the “penalty box” at Detroit Metro waiting for an assigned gate to clear, I wonder how much of this has to do with the airlines not being able to, or wanting to, take the plane to an unassigned gate. Is there an extra cost if they do that? Do they have so few gates now at JFK that they physically could not get the plane to a gate?

    There are too many questions and not nearly enough answers. I agree with other commenters.. once you’re on the plane, the flight attendants and pilots are not going to put up with ANY back talk from the passengers. They are too willing to use the federal marshals and regulations as a billy-club to beat passengers into submission. We need a passenger bill of rights, either enacted into law or adopted by all airlines, that proscribes this type of behavior BEFORE it happens!

  • http://www.airships.net/ Dan at Airships.net

    Almost every state already makes false imprisonment (holding someone against his will) a crime. We don’t necessarily need new laws; we just need to enforce the ones we already have. At some point pilots and/or other airline employees need to start asking themselves: “It’s already been XXX hours…. am I possibly committing a crime?”

  • Meg

    @Eric Smith… can you elaborate on why it would be illegal to call 911 from a plane sitting on a tarmac. Why wouldn’t you be able to call the police to tell them you’re being held against your will, after say 4 hours?

  • Kathleen Pierz

    Again, risking losing the ability to fly for life, or risking being charged with a crime is just too risky in today’s environment. For lack of a federal regulation, I recommend grabbing your chest, panting, complain of pain and suggest you have a history heart trouble. Seven hours is beyond any possible reasonable time. I was once stuck on the tarmac for 3 hours at the end of a long day with a loud group of drunk oil rough necks in the back. I was near tears by the time we finally were allowed of the plane. Seven hours is just plain dangerous.

  • Ken

    Hold me hostage on a plane and I’m suddenly going to come down with “swine flu.” Or maybe “chest pain.” Or a “panic attack.” Or maybe my “Tourette syndrome” will start acting up. The plane will return to the terminal, pronto.

  • Bill

    I keep seeing people come up with “nothing that works”. Two hours should be the limit. Fees for hour 3: $100 per passenger. Fees for hour four: $150 per passenger. Fees for hour 5: $200 per passenger – etc etc. I am not willing to sit on a plane for two hours waiting in order to get to my destination. Even if the whole process takes a lot longer, I do not want to have the feeling of being imprisioned on the plane. Let me off. Fix your problems, and board.

  • A Concerned Citzien

    you should not try to regulate airlines just let the free market do it. this is a capitolist soceity. if u do not like the airlines then dont fly.

    this is all borat hussein obamas fault because he iz a muslim communist who was born in kenya and is trying to indoctrincate my kids by telling them to stay in school and learn his liberal agenda.

    big business is more efficient then government. they should be alowed to operate unregulated and do whatever they want to passengers because its a free country. you choose to get on the plane so yuo suck it up.

    george W bush is a hero because he made flying safer and created TSA which is better thenn whoever did securty before.

    all these liberals trying to give our country away to the muslims is the reason flying is dangerous and flight attendants have to be strict. if it wasn’t for liberals we wouldn’t have tarmac dellays.

    if you call 911 and lie you should go to jail for filing a false report 911 is only for emergencies. there needs to be more personal responsibility in this country. people in bad situations its there own fault.

    i am worried about teh direction of tihs country because obama is so scary.
    he hates amerika.

  • Joe Farrell

    Airlines do not want to change gates because:

    1. The connecting baggage is coming to the assigned gate
    2. The fuel load is coming to the assigned gate
    3. The passengers and ground staff are coming to the assigned gate.
    4. The pilots and remaining flight crew are coming to the assigned gate
    5. All the computer records and other dispatch info is being sent to the assigned gate.
    6. The catering and lav service is coming to the assigned gate.

    And the LAST thing you want to do is to confuse an airline employee. Imagine getting the wrong fuel load, wrong bags and wrong pilots. . . .

    That all being said – its insane that anyone could think that leaving a flight in a penalty box for 6 hours would be acceptable.

  • Joe Farrell

    oh, and PS – no one has suggested at this point that perhaps a few passengers simply asking the flight crew to return to the gate to let me off, and simply indicating that they had exhausted their patience, would not be met with the attitude that ok, we’ll take you back.

    In order to be ‘kept against your will’ you need to tell the person whose is detaining you that you no longer consent to being detained. At THAT point, after a reasonable period of time, you can call the police to be rescued. You would NOT be ‘interfering with flight crew’ because the flight crew need to performing lawful duties. . . and detaining you against your will is not a lawful activity.

    Have we ALL become wimps? Is the threat of an overbearing government truly reached the point where everyone is a sheep now?

    How about expressing your displeasure. Firmly stating: “I no longer consent to being on this aircraft, please return me to the gate.” See what they say. If they refuse, POLITELY state that unless you arrange for me to leave this aircraft I will treat it was an unlawful confinement and take steps I deem appropriate up to and including contacting police and taking self-help measures.

  • Lisa S

    @Eric Smith

    You mean that if I called 911 saying I was having an asthma attack and the crew wouldn’t give me water or let me get to a place where I could recline and breath fresh air after using my inhaler–stress is one my triggers–I would be charged with a felony? How is THAT legal?

    @Joe Farrell

    So does that mean that after telling a member of the crew that I no longer consent to being detained, I can call 911 WITHOUT being charged with a felony? How do you define reasonable period of time?

  • Lisa S

    @Meg, why do you have to wait 4 hours? Personally, if I am being held in a plane and my water has run out or I need to use a toilet and the crew won’t let me, that is the end of my patience. I have been very puzzled by Chris’ comments in the past that anything longer than 3 hours should not be allowed. Perhaps I am not such an experienced traveler as others on this site, but I think anything longer than an hour is too long. AND you shouldn’t be forced to sit in those uncomfortable seats for an hour, but be allowed to walk around–terrorists be damned! If everyone is so afraid of terrorists, then no plane should be left sitting on the tarmac. Period.

    Perhaps I feel this way because I remember flying TWA in 1982 (my first plane trip) when people still dressed up, refreshments and food were served, and seats were actually comfortable. Since the airlines decided to change their business model from an unprofitable one to a sometimes profitable one, air travel has become a nightmare, necessary only because of the places I like to travel. Of course, if my employer offered unlimited vacation time, I would travel by ship to my destination, but that is not an option. I still don’t understand why it is legal to hold passengers captive on a plane.

  • Rich Coleman

    I would like to know how people with clastrophobia deal with this. I bring my meds with me when I travel, but I swear, if a plane was stuck even 1 hour, I would wig-out. I can’t be the only travler like this either. So what is done during a panic attack?

  • James

    Yes, it is acceptable. Well, that is if they pay me my hourly wage for any time in excess of 20 minutes. Now do that for all passengers and the wait time will go down dramatically. It was inexcusable.

  • ilza

    and guess how our feet will look like at the end of this ordeal – no way I would sit quietly – arrest me, whatever, but someone would have to let me out !