Guidelines for stranded air passengers voluntary

A U.S. government task force has given approval to voluntary guidelines for airlines and airports in dealing with situations that see passengers sitting on planes on the tarmac for hours, but has not provided a specific limit on the number of hours before they are allowed to deplane.

Passengers and passenger rights advocates were hoping for better protective measures and were disappointed by the results.

“You have to admit that the game is still heavily weighted to business as usual,” said passenger rights advocate, Kate Hanni, to fellow task force members before she voted against the report’s adoption.

Advocates said that the task force recommendations reflected the demands made by airline members, who lobbied for the flexibility to create their own response plans, rather than being forced to follow a blanket time limit for keeping passengers in a plane on the tarmac.

Daniel Rutenberg, a task force member representing the International Airline Passengers Association (IAPA) expressed his disappointment that the recommendations do not have “time-specific triggers,” for when passengers are allowed to deplane, and appealed to the Transportation Secretary, Mary Peters, to address this concern.

Assistant General Counsel for the Transportation Department, Sam Podberesky, who is the chairman of the task force, noted that the department is at work on a separate ruling that would require airlines and airports to have contingency plans in place, which would include a time limit.

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