TACA Airlines Plane Sits On SoCal Ramp
Some
holiday "traditions" refuse to go away. On Monday, 191 airline
passengers were stranded on the ramp at Ontario International
Airport in Southern California for over nine hours, begging to be
let off the plane and provided only water and crackers.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise reports TACA Airlines Flight 670
diverted to Ontario at around 11:50 pm PST Sunday night, due to fog
at Los Angeles International. Airport spokeswoman Maria
Tesoro-Fermin said the Airbus A321 took off for its original
destination at 8:50 am Monday; over the nine hours in between,
passengers were not allowed to deplane due to wrangling over
customs issues.
According to the Associated Press, "El Salvador-based Taca
[Airlines] released a statement saying local authorities did not
give permission for passengers to go through customs and enter the
country. However, US Customs and Border Protection spokesman Mike
Fleming said the airline did not ask for permission to let the
passengers disembark."
The incident strikes too close to home for Kate Hanni, founder
and spokesperson for the Coalition for an Airline Passengers Bill
of Rights and FlyersRights.org.
"It's been two years since my family was held on a tarmac for
over nine hours in Austin, Texas by American Airlines. What will it
take for our government to enact protections?" Hanni asked.
Monday's was just the latest in a series of international
flight tarmac strandings. In August 2007, an estimated 20,000
passengers sat on the tarmac for several hours due to a computer
system failure. At BWI in July 2007, passengers staged a revolt
after five hours and were eventually escorted off the plane by
police and guard dogs.
Hanni, who is also a member of a federal task force for
addressing long tarmac delays, said, "Unfortunately, the US
Department of Transportation (DOT) is not considering any
regulations that would stop yesterday's event from occurring in the
future. Foreign airlines like Taca wouldn't be subject to any US
requirement to have plans for tarmac strandings, and neither the
federal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency nor the airport
authority can require that passengers be deplaned if the airline
doesn't request it."
According to tarmac task force documents, CBP would allow
airports to create "sterile" rooms that would be able to
temporarily accept passengers from diverted international flights.
"The problem with the task force report is that there is still no
regulation to impel the airlines to make use of the improved
cooperation, and no coordination between the DOT, domestic or
international airlines, and airports."
CAPBOR has 24,000 members and is the largest non-profit airline
passengers rights Coalition. The group's allies include Consumer's
Union, Public Citizen, Consumer Federation of America, USPirg, NSL,
ACAP, IAM AND NATCA.