Feds To Probe Xmas Airline Snafus

Airline Foul-ups Stranded Thousands During Christmas Weekend

(CBS/AP)  The nation's top transportation official ordered an investigation of two airlines that canceled hundreds of flights over the holiday weekend because of computer and staffing problems, stranding thousands of travelers.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta asked the agency's inspector general to investigate the difficulties at US Airways and Delta subsidiary Comair, which had to ground 1,100 flights on Saturday because of a computer problem.

Meanwhile, the massive sickout by US Airways employees may have opened the door for some big lawsuits, reports CBS News Correspondent Peter King.

Mineta said Monday in a letter to the agency's inspector general that people "must learn from the situations" to make sure they do not happen again.

US Airways Group Inc. was forced to cancel hundreds of flights and strand thousands of passengers between Thursday and Sunday because about triple the usual number of flight attendants called in sick.

Adding to US Airways' woes, an unusually high number of baggage handlers at Philadelphia's airport failed to report to work, the airline said, and the remaining staff became overwhelmed by a mountain of luggage.

Operations at the bankrupt company returned to near-normal on Monday, although workers were still trying to reunite people with their bags.

Comair also was returning to normal, with only eight of its flights listed as delayed Tuesday on the monitors at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, where the airline is based. Rows of luggage not yet delivered to owners had diminished considerably from Monday, when they stretched longer than a football field.

Attorney Mark Bunim says the carrier knew there might be trouble and could have prevented cancellations and lost luggage fiasco.

"Legally, what we say is that they acted recklessly," Bunim told King, adding that US Airways should have had insurance to pay for fill-in help to keep the airline running.

"At least if something happens, some disaster, they're prepared for that," Bunim said.

But, he said, the airlines don't carry that kind of insurance and that leaves them open to meltdowns like the one last weekend.

Arletta Shores was supposed to fly home to Guymon, Okla., on Tuesday, but her Comair flight out of Cincinnati was postponed to Wednesday. That followed a series of cancellations last week that meant she didn't arrive in Cincinnati until Saturday, two days late.

"I always have problems when I fly — a canceled flight, lost luggage," Shores said Tuesday.

Comair officials did not immediately return phone messages Tuesday seeking an update on flights.

Comair President Randy Rademacher promised cooperation with the DOT probe.

"They have done nothing but lie to us," complained US Airways passenger Mandy Frevele Monday. After five days, she and her family gave up on the airline and began the six hour drive home — without their bags.

"It's just been horrible, it's been a horrible experience. I just never ever, ever want to do this again," Frevele told CBS News.

"Bev and I went from a canceled Comair flight on Thursday (could not find Cincinnati in the snow) to US Airways. We arrived in Scranton at 2:30 a.m. Friday (only 3 hours late) ... to be joined by our luggage at 8 p.m. Sunday," Dick Sine of Fort Mill, S.C., a technical writing manager for Bank of America, told CBSNews.com. "At least part of the air transport system in this country is broken."

Union leaders at US Airways continued to blame thin staffing, denying that workers had staged a sickout to penalize the company for slashing their pay.

"We are so short staffed, if there is spit on the runway in Philadelphia, it causes a fiasco," said Teddy Xidas, president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants.

Of about 1,675 flight attendants scheduled to work Thursday, Friday and Saturday, about 300 called in sick daily, more than expected based on past holidays, US Airways spokesman Chris Chiames said. The carrier usually plans for about 100 such absences.

"To suggest it was somehow a staffing issue on our part is to shift attention away from the ... employees who chose to do this," Chiames said.

Alarm bells about a looming staffing crisis in Philadelphia apparently began sounding at least five days before Christmas and two days before snow began causing flight disruptions in Indiana and Ohio.

"I would not fly through (Philadelphia) this weekend," one Internet poster warned on Dec. 20 in a forum frequented by airline employees on the Web site USaviation.com.

The writer warned that a wave of US Airways baggage handlers were likely to skip work over the holidays, either because they were upset with the struggling company's latest proposals to trim pay and benefits, or because they were planning to retire and were using up spare sick days.

US Airways has been trying to cut costs to avoid liquidation.

Reservations and gate agents reluctantly approved a new contract Thursday that will cut their pay by 13 percent. Flight attendants are in the midst of phone balloting to decide whether to accept a contract with a 9 percent pay cut. Balloting is expected to end Jan. 5. The pilots' union previously ratified a new deal.

Two of the airline's employee groups are still negotiating.