Says Plans To Address Long-Term Strandings Inadequate

Airline travelers outraged over spending long periods stranded on planes have an ally in the US Department of Transportation's Inspector General.

Calvin L. Scovell III studied on-board delays over the past year. In addition to the highly publicized cases involving American flights stranded in Texas last December, and Jetblue planes trapped by ice storms in New York in February, he found four other incidents in 2007 that stranded passengers on waiting planes for nine hours... four hours... six hours... and 10 hours.

He said the number of times passengers were confined to airplanes on the ground for more than five hours rose from 27 in the first seven months of 2006 to 44 in the comparable period this year, according to The Associated Press.

Scovell blamed the problem on poor planning by the airlines, and the airports... and said their planning was still deficient.

"Both airline and airport contingency plans are limited in addressing long, on-board delays," Scovell said. "In fact, we found there has been little improvement from what we reported in 2001 -- that only a few airlines' contingency plans specified in any detail the efforts planned to get passengers off the aircraft when delayed for extended periods."

"We are studying the inspector general's recommendations and look forward to meeting with the transportation secretary and the IG to discuss them further," said David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association.

In a written statement, the Transportation Department said the IG report "...will help develop our response to this challenge."

Scovell recommended the federal government require scheduled airlines using aircraft with more than 30 passenger seats set limits on how long stranded passengers can be held on board an airliner.

He also recommended that the government require large and medium-sized hub airports to monitor on-board delays, and demand an action plan from airlines whenever a loaded plane has spent two hours on the tarmac.

FMI: www.oig.dot.gov