Pilot Pleaded to Evacuate Stranded Plane

47 Passengers Were Kept For 6 Hours Inside Cramped Jet Even Though They Were Only 50 Yards from Terminal

(CBS/ AP)  Updated 2:40 p.m. ET

The pilot of an airliner stranded overnight on an airport tarmac in Minnesota pleaded unsuccessfully for her 47 passengers to be allowed to get off and go inside a terminal. "We just need to work out some way to get them off ... We can't keep them here any longer," she said.

The Transportation Department on Friday released recordings of the repeated appeals by the pilot and her airline's dispatchers earlier this month while passengers were kept waiting for about six hours in the cramped plane amid crying babies and a smelly toilet before they were allowed to deplane.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said an investigation by his department found that ExpressJet wasn't at fault in the tarmac stranding. The regional carrier operated Continental Express Flight 2816 for Houston-based Continental Airlines.

Instead, blame for the incident, which has revived calls for greater consumer protections for airline passengers, belongs with Mesaba Airlines, whose representative declined to let the ExpressJet passengers deplane, LaHood said in a statement.

A Mesaba representative incorrectly told ExpressJet that the passengers couldn't be allowed inside the terminal because Transportation Security Administration personnel had left for the day, LaHood said.

Actually, security regulations allow for deplaning passengers to be kept in a separate "sterile" area until they are ready to board, he said.

"We have determined that the Express Jet crew was not at fault. In fact, the flight crew repeatedly tried to get permission to deplane the passengers at the airport or obtain a bus for them," LaHood said.

"There was a complete lack of common sense here," the secretary added. "It's no wonder the flying public is so angry and frustrated."

Mesaba was the only airline with staff still at the airport that Friday night.

The plane left Houston at 9:23 p.m. local time on Aug. 7, but was diverted by thunderstorms to Rochester. Passengers were kept waiting on the tarmac only 50 yards from a terminal. In the morning, they were allowed to deplane. They spent about 2½ hours inside the terminal before reboarding the same plane. They arrived in Minneapolis, their destination, after 11 a.m. CDT.

Mesaba is a subsidiary of Northwest Airlines, which is a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines. A Delta spokeswoman didn't immediately return a phone message seeking comment.

Continental Chairman and CEO Larry Kellner said in a statement that he was gratified the Transportation Department recognized the ExpressJet crew's efforts to resolve the situation.

The department released audio tapes of the captain explaining the situation to an ExpressJet dispatcher, and dispatchers trying to persuade Mesaba officials to allow passengers inside. Passengers from an earlier flight diverted to Rochester had been allowed to deplane and were taken by bus to Minneapolis, about 85 miles away.

However, Mesaba officials said there were no more buses available.

"I can't get her a bus, I can't do anything," said a Mesaba representative.

"You can't do anything for her? OK," asked the ExpressJet dispatcher.

"No."

"Because she was saying nobody was letting her off the airplane, letting the people off the airplane and all that," the dispatcher continued.

"We can't - I mean we were just able to let these guys off. We can't get them a bus. If I can't secure them a bus, I can't have them in a closed airport," the Mesaba representative replied.

Link Christin, who was on the flight, said the incident was a clear example of why more safeguards are necessary for passengers.

Christin said on "The Early Show" last week that his "nightmare" flight is an example of why an airline Passengers' Bill of Rights needs to get through Congress.

"To me, the critical issue is not who's to blame, but to figure out what happened and how it could be prevented in the future," Christin, a lecturer at William Mitchell College of Law, told The Associated Press.

More than a week afterward, Christin said he's started to think about "the fact that so many variables were at play with 47, 48 people, two babies, and the variety of potential catastrophes that could have happened."

"In reflection, I think it's even a more serious matter than I perceived it to be when I was going through it," he said.

[fullthrottleflaps20]

News Flash! Expect more stories like this in the future because the worst ground handlers in the nation "Comair & Mesaba" are merging to become Elite Regional Airline Services that mostly serve hub locations. My suggestion to everyone is just go to a major station because things will only get worse at the smaller hubs. This is what you get when major airlines hire underbidding ground crews and release responsible airlines (SkyWest and Express Jet just to name a few)from the smaller hubs just to save a few bucks. If anyone doubts the validity of this statement stay tuned, for I'm sure you will be reading more stories like this in the VERY near future. Happy flying.

What needs to happen is to take those insufferable morons from Mesaba and stick them on a plane parked out on the tarmac for six hours. I believe they all should be charged with kidnapping.

[Turbidite]

It seems we have ground based terrorists controlling those ornery, wayward airline passengers when they are forced to land at Rochester. Post Rochester on the "Do Not Fly To" list.

[Ms_enza]

The doors of airplanes open from the inside too... at least for now.

[skeezix06]

The pilot was the only one who had any commonsense.

[Illuminated1]

You gotta crack some eggs to make an omelet.
Not only should there be a passengers bill of rights, but also a system that puts the plane back at the terminal if flights have to be delayed. Sitting on the runway is the same as sitting at the terminal. If terminals are so congested, maybe the solution is to keep the birds parked and call them when ready to fly, that way the ac stays running on the plane and perhaps that odor from the toilet doesn't travel far....I've sat next to those, got the seat from priceline.com....never again.

[thistle42]

A passenger or ten could have notified the flight attendant -- or 911 -- they were having a medical emergency ("I think I'm having a heart attack" or "there's some strange chemical smell and it's making me sick, I'm having serious trouble breathing"...) Those doors would be opened really fast, and I doubt they would lock people in after that.

[thistle42]

If there were clearly known consequences for locking passengers up that long, such as the "dollar a minute" penalty / motivation concept ( http://critique.org/bcs.ht ) then the responsible parties would have tried a lot harder to make it work. 47 passengers X $1/minute X 9 hours would cost the responsible party over $25,000. (Maybe should be $10/minute for sleep deprivation!)

[tomrobla]

They are blaming an airline clerk working for Mesaba Airlines at Rochester Airport during the graveyard shift. This person is at the bottom of the food chain yet will burden all the blame.

[SusanStoHelit]

They were to blame. That is who to point the finger at. From there - comes the question if they were following policy, if they should have been responsible, or if they were standing on their own. But that is where the failing is. People are suggesting the pilot should have broken all the rules, lost their job, to let the passengers off - this clerk could have simply let the plane dock. Not that difficult. Especially if the reports are all accurate that this was indeed a standard and normal thing to allow.

[rhs648]

The people who work at airports including the security people sometimes leave much to be desired. Too often, they lack the common sense and/or good judgment and/or willingness necessary to handle anything outside of the norm. A few months back, I was at the West Palm Beach airport. For some reason, security was backed up for a very long time. I spoke to one of the security persons security and explained that my flight would be leaving in a few minutes and that I might miss it because of the very slow lines. She said that there was nothing she could do and that I could ask each passenger if I could go ahead of them. One passenger actually refused to let me go ahead of her and I barely made the plane. Hopefully, the airport officials will see this post. By the way, the security woman could hardly speak English which did not help.

[toldyouso29]

Nope--we need to stop trying to "move forward" and let people not be held accountable for the stupid stuff and evil stuff that they do. Bush and Cheney et al should go to jail for war crimes, and whoever made these people wait like that and did not know their own rules or the fact that persons deplaning are already in a secure area when they get off the plane and therefore do not need to be reprocessed--should be fired.

We can take care of business, make examples out of some people and move forward all at the same time--the most simplistic of multitasking.

[tibu987]

Am I missing something here?

This was a domestic flight which means the passengers already went through security to get on. There was no need to rescreen them so they should have been able to get off.

Since this was not the destination of the aircraft, there would not have been any new passengers to board.

I fly, but I am claustrophbic and asthmatic. That would have been real hell for me.

[Meg003]

What you are missing is that the passengers could have left the secure area and theoretically acquired weapons before re-boarding. What the airport crew was missing is that the passengers were probably ready to tear them apart with their bare hands after six hours on the plane.

[phailaphaila]

After 1 hour I would have called the police. This was basically kidnapping. They were being held hostage and that is illegial. If everyone on the plane called the police eventually something would have been done, if anything, just to get them to stop calling 911! The crew were also being held hostage.

I do now that feeling of thinking "Oh...it will only be 1 more 1/2 hour...then 1 more 1/2 hour" next time do not let other people control your fate. The airport staff suck so much! They did not want to deal with the extra hassle of a bunch of tired stranded passangers.
Jerks!

[Hosheen]

I would have taken the passengers to the terminal myself. If I'd been a passenger, I would have operated an emergency slide and told the TSA, the airlines, and anyone else objecting to obey the biblical imperative to "go forth and multiply thyself".

This was cruel and inhuman treatment of people whose only error was flying this airline. If this had been a planeload of terrorists suspects, the uproar would have broken the people responsible.

[SusanStoHelit]

And you would have been fired.

Expecting the pilot to risk a decade of hard work to get that job (it is not an easy job to get), all their time and training - is not the answer to this problem. A solution that involves breaking the rules they have to work under is not the answer.

[govtguy]

What if the pilot had declared an aircraft ground emergency? Would the airfield operators have forced the crew to physically restrain and detain the passengers and stay with the aircraft themselves, putting all in potentially physical harms way? Stupid airport people! Betcha the TSA on-call person got the phone call and decided not to recall the ground crew needed to secure the aircraft and passengers. Had to be an overtime pay issue! And just where was the airfield manager and the flight safety supervisor while this was happening?
....Probably at home eating dinner and totally oblivious. They all deserve suspension, including the maroons in Wash DC who continue to allow this to happen, i.e. HQ FAA!

[govtguy]

What if the pilot had declared an aircraft ground emergency? Would the airfield operators have forced the crew to physically restrain and detain the passengers and stay with the aircraft themselves, putting all in potentially physical harms way? Stupid airport people! Betcha the TSA on-call person got the phone call and decided not to recall the ground crew needed to secure the aircraft and passengers. Had to be an overtime pay issue! And just where was the airfield manager and the flight safety supervisor while this was happening?
....Probably at home eating dinner and totally oblivious. They all deserve suspension, including the maroons in Wash DC who continue to allow this to happen, i.e. HQ FAA!

[bjo1109]

I agree that a Passengers' Bill of Rights is needed. What happened showed that, basically, passengers are prisoners once they board an airplane. They cannot get off unless they have permission, even in situations like this. This is ridiculous! Can you imagine getting in a taxi and not being allowed to get out without authorization? Why do airline passengers have to give up all their rights? Passengers are not criminals, but they are prisoners--this is SO wrong!