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.

FMI: www.flyersrights.com, www.grupotaca.com