'Nightmare' flight: Airlines to be fined $175K

WASHINGTON -- The government is imposing fines for the first time against airlines for stranding passengers on an airport tarmac, the Department of Transportation said Tuesday. 

The department said it has levied a precedent-setting $175,000 in fines against three airlines for their role in the stranding of passengers overnight in a plane at Rochester, Minn., on Aug. 8.

Continental Airlines and ExpressJet Airlines were each fined $50,000.

The department imposed the largest penalty -- $75,000 -- on Mesaba Airlines, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, which provided ground handling for the flight.  

BACKGROUND: 47 spend 'nightmare' night in grounded plane

"Mesaba continues to feel it operated in good faith by providing voluntary ground handling assistance to ExpressJet during this delay," Mesaba Airlines President John Spanjers said in a statement. "However, customer service is paramount, and we are reevaluating our policies and procedures for the courtesy handling of other airlines' flights to do our part to mitigate this type of delay."

ExpressJet spokeswoman Kristy Nicholas said the airline can avoid paying half the fines if it spends the same amount of money on additional training for their employees on how to handle extended tarmac delays.

"I hope that this sends a signal to the rest of the airline industry that we expect airlines to respect the rights of air travelers," U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. "We will also use what we have learned from this investigation to strengthen protections for airline passengers subjected to long tarmac delays."

The Continental Express flight carrying 47 passengers from Houston to Minneapolis when it was diverted to Rochester on August 8, 2009 at around 12:30 a.m. because of thunderstorms.

The airport closed and a Mesaba employee refused to open the terminal for the stranded passengers.

The passengers of Flight 2816 were kept waiting nearly six hours inside the cramped regional airliner amid wailing babies and a smelly toilet even though they were only 50 yards from a terminal. The captain of the flight repeatedly pleaded to allow the passengers to deplane and enter the terminal.

In the morning they were allowed to disembark. They spent about two and a half hours inside the terminal before reboarding the same plane to complete their trip to Minneapolis.

Passenger Link Christin praised the department for punishing the airlines for their behavior.

"A conclusion that there was some wrongdoing or negligence is more important to me than the amount of the fine," said Christin, a lecturer at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn.

Continental pointedly noted in a statement that its fines were less than those imposed on rival Delta's subsidiary.

Besides the fine, Continental also provided a full refund to each passenger and "offered each passenger additional compensation to tangibly acknowledge their time and discomfort," the department said.

The department's actions comes as Congress weighs legislation that place a three-hour cap on how long airlines can keep passengers waiting on tarmacs before they have to offer them the opportunity to deplane or return to a gate. The measure would give a flight's captain the authority to extend the wait an additional half hour if it appears that clearance to takeoff is near.

The measure is opposed by the Air Transport Association, which represents major airlines. Industry officials say a three-hour limit could create more problems than it alleviates by increasing the number of flights that are canceled and leaving passengers stuck at airports trying to make new travel arrangements.

Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, co-authors of the passengers' rights bill, said in a joint statement that they were pleased by the department's action, but legislation is still necessary to put in place standards for airlines' treatment of their customers and to hold airlines accountable for meeting those standards. Besides the three-hour cap, the bill would require airlines to provide food, potable water, comfortable cabin temperature and ventilation, and adequate restrooms to passengers during extended delays.

Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, a consumer group representing business travelers, said he hopes the fines will serve as a catalyst to force the airline industry to address concerns about the treatment of passengers during extended tarmac delays after years of lobbying to ward off legislation.

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