In 1999, Northwest Airlines flight 225 was stuck on the tarmac in Detroit for over seven hours during a snowstorm – without food or water or working toilets. A passenger on board saw the airline CEO’s name in the inflight magazine, tracked down his home phone number, and gave it to the captain – demanding he call the man. He did. And that helped get passengers off.
In 2007 JetBlue flight 751 was on the ground at New York JFK for around 11 hours. And a number of other high profile incidents sparked DOT’s “tarmac delay rule” which says that passengers have to be given the opportunity to get of the aircraft after three hours for a domestic flight, and four hours for an international one.
Airlines said it would lead to more cancellations, and more people being delayed even more. And they aren’t wrong. But it also means far fewer times that customers are trapped on board without recourse. I’ve found that when I’m on a plane sitting on the ground at a small airport for two and a half hours, air stairs magically appear.
The Department of Transportation can impose fines of up to $27,500 per passenger for violating this rule, although it tends to take them quite awhile to do this. As today’s announcement indicates, they like to roll up lots of violations in order to announce big numbers: DOT has just issued its largest fine ever for violating the tarmac delay rule in a consent decree with American Airlines.
- This rolls up violations from 43 domestic flights, mostly at Dallas – Fort Worth, between 2018 and 2021 with tarmac delays over three hours without passengers being given the opportunity to deplane, and where no exception to the rule applies.
- The total fine is $4.1 million, but $2.05 million is credited back for compensation that was given to passengers of these flights. So the fine is really $2.05 million.
5,821 passenger were involved in these delays – so the total possible fine was $166,077,500. And American is only actually paying $2 million. In some cases it’s five years since the known violation occurred.
The Department of Transportation, though, pats itself on the back:
“This is the latest action in our continued drive to enforce the rights of airline passengers,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Whether the issue is extreme tarmac delays or problems getting refunds, DOT will continue to protect consumers and hold airlines accountable.”
I’d say American actually comes out of this fairly well, negotiating down fines by $164 million while taking a momentary PR hit – which is only one hit, rather than 43 hits if addressed separately.
Glad to hear this as there should be some accountability for situations like these.
“Imprisoning” is a bit dramatic, don’t you think?
Imprisoned? Come on Gary, even for you, that headline is beyond ridiculous.
The title didn’t seem dramatic to me as i seem to remember this phrase in a court filing. Thanks for keeping us current
Just did the math: That works out to a fine of $350/passenger. It’s not like airlines make money on flying to begin with, so it’s certainly a disincentive (hence Gary’s observation about “magical stairs”).
However, one would think this should be an annual exercise with every airline, and punishments that ratchet up every year as airlines tighten up their ops. Eventually, perhaps in 10 years, the fine really should be $27500/pax.
How did a passenger stuck on a plane on the tarmac track down the CEOs home phone number in 1999 before smartphones? Was he using the seat back phones to call directory assistance?
To those who objected to the word ~ imprisoned ~ …..
Northwest Flight 225 in 1999… 7 hours without food, water, and working toilets? Gee, would uou be offended by the word ~ abusive ~ (?)
Because that’s what it was. The airplane was not going anywhere soon in the snowstorm. Why not give people the choice to go back to the concourse to use the lavatory… just a wee bit of humanity would have gone a long way that night.
“Airlines said it would lead to more cancellations, and more people being delayed even more. And they aren’t wrong.”
@Gary – is there any evidence of that?
I’m genuinely curious. I know you disagreed with the prospect of these fines at the time that they were introduced for that very reason.
@Sco
In 1999 I was using a Palm Pilot 5 cradled into a very early cell modem call OmniSky to connect to the internet. It was an expensive at $40 per month but I kept it up for years for the novelty of it. I recall thinking it was the greatest thing since sliced toast and took a beating buying OmniSky stock but they went bankrupt, I got a few pennies back in a class action fraud suit. The Palm 7 had the modem built in.
So it was possible.
If the speed at which the wheels of justice moved had anything to do with how seriously the government cared for passengers, then anywhere from a 2 to 5 year process to settle these cases seems more than excessive.
And specific to AA, DFW was long been a mess whenever anything weatherwise went wrong. Thankfully, AA’s focus on its operation has included fixing their DFW hub. It is CLT these days that is a perpetual mess when anything goes wrong.
For those who thought in prison was hyperbole, it meets the dictionary definition of imprisonment. You cannot leave the plane without substantial negative effect. Open up those doors and you will be banned for life. That is a substantial impediment that no one reading this wants. The only thing left is to sit down and shut up and wait until someone decides to open the door and allow you to leave.
To those saying the headline including Imprisonment is a bit harsh, if you were on that flight and sat for over 3 hours you might say different.
Isn’t the slang term for DTW known as Don’t Travel Wet?
Or is it Don’t Fly Wet for DFW?
Wife and I were trapped on the plane for 7 hours at DFW on a layover to ELP. Toilets quickly filled up and water ran out. After about 5 hours several of us began speaking up. The pilot came out and threatened to call the police. When we started clapping he stormed back to the cockpit. When we landed he never showed his face. This one one of two episodes that ended my flying with American. The sooner they go bankrupt and somebody else rises from the ashes the better.
I think that imprisonment is too soft of a term. While the people surrounding you may not be as bad on an airplane (debatable), in prison you have access to toilets that work (usually) and you are fed several times a day. Remember, airlines in the United States don’t feed everyone so in many cases people may have not had food for many more hours than the time stuck on the airplane. I also think that the fine was ridiculously low. It should have been high enough to compensate each passenger at least $1,000 along with a treble fine. I wonder how many of these imprisonments resulted in the crew timing out. I suspect a lot. The crew kept making money while the passengers were held hostage.
Airlines can keep you in plane with locked doors without flying for up to 3 hours? That’s insane ! The law should be one hour for domestic and 90 mins max for international! After one hour you should be allowed to get the hell out on next flight for full refund snd compensation for hotel stay !
@colby, I’ve sat on flight for over three hours before. The prolonged delay is not the issue, it’s how the flight crew handle it.
Personally, I’ll take 4 hours on the tarmac over a cancelled flight any day. I’m traveling because I have things to do. If the flight cancels I can’t do them. It’s that simple.
Ft. Worth/Dallas departure flights are notorious for weather delays in the summertime. Storm central down there
Gary in 2010: (multiple articles stating) the tarmac rule will be terrible, it will lead to delays and be counterproductive to passengers. It should never be passed
Gary in 2023: passengers “imprisoned”
Shows a complete lack of expertise
I feel like a prisoner when I fly on American Airlines. You fly CLT-LAX sometime.
In my experience arriving early is never good. Because the gate is in use. There is no win win in the scenario. Arrive late you get punished, arrive early u get punish. Trust that airlines really don’t want to keep passengers on planes longer they have too. Even the FAA knows that simple fact.
My recollection is that Gary originally opposed this rule. Glad that you have seen the light.
So much for the Biden “tough on enforcement” posturing.
Actually, this time, Gary, I loved the headline. You are, in fact, imprisoned when you are stuck in a metal tube with a couple hundred other people for hours, often not allowed to eat and sometimes told you can’t use the loo because you “might” be cleared for take off at any moment. If the boarding door is closed, you are not supposed to have your phone on (even though people do) and a militant crew will scold those who are on it. While types of imprisonment vary, this certainly qualifies.
$5 million isn’t much to AA. They’re just fooling the average American to believe the government “cares” about them. The fines should be 10x what they are and multiply on each subsequent offence.
That’s odd for a big headline Yes it is so a dramatic word for “imprisoned”
Well, hope this airline doesn’t. It’s much worse if we lack planes to travel.
@Jake @Boraxo – there are tradeoffs, and the tradeoffs involved in the rule should be recognized.
Only $4M penalty??
The airlines have an incentive to continue violating the guidelines.
In the second paragraph, it reads “given the opportunity to get of (off) the aircraft…”
Does the author proofread his articles?? I attended a bad school in CA so I’m not volunteering.
“@Jake @Boraxo – there are tradeoffs, and the tradeoffs involved in the rule should be recognized”
But you haven’t said what the tradeoffs are? Is there any hard evidence that flights have been canceled which would not have been absent the DOT rule?
It feels to me like this is an example of a theory without evidence of the practice – just an assumption.
I flew American on 8/27/2023 from Dallas to Houston
We were held hostage on the tarmac for over 5 and a half hours!!!!!
No water or food no access to bathrooms
Flight boarded at 2:05 pm we were still on runway up until 7 something
Their admitted fault in email I have
Their compensation was only 250.00
I need to file complaint
American Airlines just did that today! Domestic flight and well over 3 hours. In NC!
I believe the proactive cancels we started seeing in advance of weather occur because of this rule.
Having gone through a diversion to OKC earlier this year of just under 3 hours where no food or water was served, imprisonment begins to feel true. While I usually bring a bit of food and drink, I did not on this flight and I regretted it. At least it was the crew’s starting leg, so we weren’t facing a timeout on the ground in OKC.
To their credit they did arrange lavatory servicing so we avoided that problem. They also let us wander around the plane rather than stay strapped in for that “any minute” release that never comes. They did give people one chance to get off, but there was no coming back to the aircraft if you did so, and there would be no help arranging different connections.
My connection was also delayed but not canceled, so it took me 12-13 hours to travel 1800 miles as the crow flies, but I made it. Could have been a lot worse, but could have been better if there had been a tiny bit of hospitality on the ground.
For Any imprisonment Over 30 minutes should be calling 911.