Northeast snow storm and airplanes

[AEA]

I am sure most have seen the story about the Jet Blue airliner stuck on the tarmac for 7.5 hours and calling for help. No water, no working restrooms, medical problems with several passengers.......etc.......

Where is the National Guard when they are needed?
Why didn't the Governor (already issued a State of Emergency) get the National Guard to those planes (more than one) and get the people off?

[knotquiteawake]

So they passed all those laws about people on airplanes and their "rights" and it all really amounts to pretty much nothing I guess. Every airport should have some kind of policy for when this happens, some plan to get people off of planes regardless of gates being available.

[92f-fan]

its about cost
if the passengers deplane the airline is required to pay some compensation ....hotel - food etc

[PUCKER]

Not sure about you guys/gals, but I think I could figure out how to deplane....open door, inflate ramp/raft, make exit....sure, I'm sure there would be legal consequences but I'm guessing that pretty much every passenger would be right behind me...

[knotquiteawake]

I am a pretty understanding guy and even have some degree patience too but I think that after 5 hours I might start to get a bit agitated... let alone 7. its one thing if maybe it were quiet and dark and I could catch some Zs while waiting but with all the other angry passengers thats like likely to happen.

[MasterOfNone]

Perhaps a "medical emergency" that later turns out to be nothing would expedite the deplaning.

[knotquiteawake]

Perhaps a "medical emergency" that later turns out to be nothing would expedite the deplaning.

Thats actually how they got off the plane:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/feds-investiga ... d=14845299" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For the next four hours, passengers were told that the airport has only one tow bar to bring the planes in off the tarmac and that international flights were the priority.

Between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., a paraplegic man began to complain of intense pain. According to passengers near him, he had not been moved for leg circulation or been taken to the bathroom since before boarding the plane in Florida.

State police, Emergency Medical Services and an ambulance were called in for him. Other passengers were then allowed to leave the plane.

Also, it seems the Pilot wasn't a bad guy... he sounded just as angry with his own company as the passengers:

The pilot of a JetBlue plane stuck on the tarmac for seven hours full of increasingly angry and frustrated passengers pleaded for assistance from airport officials, telling them he "can't seem to get any help from our own company."

"I got a problem here on the airplane, I'm gonna need to have the cops on board," the pilot said, according to cockpit recordings posted on LiveATC.net. "There's a cop car sitting in front of me right here right now. I need some air stairs brought over here and the cops brought onboard the airplane.

"Look, you know we can't seem to get any help from our own company, I apologize for this, but is there any way you can get a tug and a tow bar out here to us and get us towed somewhere to a gate or something," he said. "I don't care. Take us anywhere."

[Oldgringo]

I remember, back in the day when I flew all of the time, there were a whole lot of little bitty words on the ticket stub but this still looks like unlawful detention or something?

It just ain't right to keep people locked up like that without due process.