When I read the headline this morning I thought they were describing a United Nations or World Health Organization intervention. “Airlines must supply food, water after 2 hours, maintain operable lavatories” (msnbc.com). But no—the Obama administration has developed some regulations to protect domestic air travelers.
In fact, the Transportation Department has ordered US passenger airlines operating domestic flights to let passengers deplane if they’ve been stuck in a plane on the tarmac for three hours. Three hours is still a long time, mind you, especially if you’re flying at the back of the bus, but it’s better than the current time limit—which is FOREVER.
According to the report on msnbc—some 613 planes were delayed on US tarmacs in the first six months of 2009—January to June. Not surprisingly, there are horror stories aplenty from passengers stranded in hot, crowded planes for hours—even overnight—while the problem that caused the aborted take-off is fixed—best case scenario.
Of course there’s always the chance that the problem can’t be fixed in your lifetime, so after Read the rest of this entry »