More than 250 passengers suffered a travel nightmare on a flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to Hong Kong International airport on Sunday, when a medical emergency on the flight caused them to remain trapped on the tarmac for approximately 16 hours.
The United Airlines
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flight was diverted to Goose Bay Airport in Newfoundland, Canada so a passenger could be hospitalized and subsequently the plane was forced to stay grounded there for hours due to a mechanical issue.
The flight was international and Goose Bay Airport did not have overnight staff, so no one was allowed to deplane.
Because the flight was international and Goose Bay Airport did not have overnight staff to process passengers through customs, no customers were allowed to get off the plane.
“The flight landed at 10 p.m. local time and customers departed at 3:30 p.m. local time on a new aircraft,” according to United. Their total delay was more than 17 hours, most of which was spent on their original aircraft.
A United Airlines spokeswoman told MarketWatch that the flight’s crew did everything possible to assist customers but could not allow them to get off the plane due to the customs problems.
“An alternative aircraft was flown in and transported customers and their luggage back to Newark,” she said. “Upon arrival, customers received reimbursement, compensation, hotel accommodations, and meals. We apologized to our customers for this experience.”
Frustrated passengers tweeted
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about the cold cabin and lack of food as temperatures dipped 30 degrees below zero outside. “This is not an airline,” passenger Cherie Martorana Neve wrote in a Facebook post around noon on Sunday. “It’s more like a prison.”
“There have been small groups of people discussing how agitated they are, discussing legal action, some even searching online what our legal rights as passengers are, and how long the airline is allowed to make us sit on the tarmac,” she added.
Is a 17-hour delay legal?
“U.S. laws do not typically extend to protect passengers internationally for tarmac delays,” said Henrik Zillmer, chief executive officer of air-passenger rights company AirHelp. “The rules also do not apply if the pilot determines there is a reason to keep passengers on the plane, pertaining to safety or security, or if air traffic control advises that taxiing to a place where passengers can deplane would significantly disrupt airport operations.”
‘U.S. laws do not typically extend to protect passengers internationally for tarmac delays.’
In other words, on many international flights and any flight in which the pilot deems it “unsafe” to leave the plane, passengers can be kept on board as long as the airline decides. In one case in November 2018, passengers were trapped on a tarmac in Siberia for six hours before deplaning and ultimately spent three days in and out of the airport due to delays.
According to U.S. law, after a tarmac delay of two hours, the airline must provide passengers with food, water, operational lavatories, and medical care. After a tarmac delay of three hours (or four hours for international flights) in the U.S., passengers must be given the option to deplane. This is not always the case, however, especially at international airports.
Airlines that are found to violate these laws can be fined by the Department of Transportation. The DOT fined Allegiant Air $225,000 in October 2018 for tarmac delays and fined American Airlines
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$1.6 million in 2016 for more than 20 flights between 2013 and 2015 that violated tarmac rules. These fines go directly to the DOT and not to affected consumers.
What can you do about delays?
Passengers affected should be able to claim compensation under the 1999 Montreal Convention, which governs international trips, according to Paul Hudson, President of FlyersRights.org, a U.S.-based airline-passenger advocacy organization. Under Article 19 of the treaty, airlines are responsible for damages suffered by passengers of up to about $5,700. This includes health issues.
‘Someone needs to stand up and say you cannot keep people trapped on the tarmac for more than 8 hours.’
To avoid liability, the airline must prove that it took all reasonable steps to avoid or mitigate the delay, Hudson said. This makes it difficult to take an airline to court if the primary reason for the delay was weather-related or any other delay deemed out of the airline’s control.
However, “Having airworthy aircraft is the airline’s responsibility,” Hudson said, meaning the passengers affected by this week’s delay could have grounds for compensation.
A long shot: If the airline will not compensate you, you could contact your credit-card company in an attempt to have the charge reversed, arguing that you did not get the service you paid for, said consumer advocate and travel writer Christopher Elliott. However, he says that may not work. “It may depend on the mood of the dispute resolution officer,” Elliott said.
What action has the government taken?
Delays like these underscore ongoing issues with flying, Elliott said. Portions of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 — designed to help investigate common complaints, the policy of “bumping” passengers from oversold flights and develop means of preventing sexual assaults on flights, among other things — may be delayed due to the government shutdown.
The Act, passed in October 2018, called for the creation of an Aviation Consumer Advocate and the examination of “tarmac delay contingency planning requirements.” (The Federal Aviation Administration did not respond to request for comment and has tweeted it is running with limited staff due to lack of funding.)
“Flying is not fair,” Elliott said. “The only reason airlines are allowed to get away with this is that we are allowing them to get away with it. Someone needs to stand up and say you cannot keep people trapped on the tarmac for more than 8 hours, and maybe something will be done.”
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Kari Paul is a personal finance reporter based in New York. You can follow her on Twitter @kari_paul.
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