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Home | Politically Connected | National Politics | In Congress
Seeking Passenger Bill of Rights, trapped fliers testify about ordeals
Without new law, a Lindstrom man foresees "disaster." Senate bill requires basic amenities and a deplaning option.
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WASHINGTON - Two months ago, Link Christin boarded the now infamous flight bound for the Twin Cities that wound up on the tarmac in Rochester for six hours. The Lindstrom resident flew again on Saturday -- this time to tell Washington his story.
The tale of those passengers, stranded overnight amid crying babies and the stench of an airplane bathroom, has given new energy to an old debate in Congress over a Passenger Bill of Rights, which would require airlines to provide basic amenities on the tarmac and offer passengers the option to deplane after three hours.
"What happened this summer just may, according to a lot of folks, have set the stage for the endgame in a 10-year debate on passenger rights," said Jerome Greer Chandler, an aviation journalist who led an unofficial hearing at the Capitol on Tuesday.
The bill is headed for a possible Senate vote later this year. A similar bill, passed in the House this spring after being ushered through Rep. Jim Oberstar's Transportation Committee, lacks the deplaning option, which advocates say is crucial.
Airlines have opposed a passenger bill of rights for years as unnecessary and have said the deplaning option could have unintended consequences, but the bill has gained support.
There was no shortage of horror stories during Tuesday's three-hour hearing, which was organized by passenger rights advocate Kate Hanni and Business Travel Coalition chairman Kevin Mitchell.
Hanni played a voicemail from a man who said he developed deep vein thrombosis aboard a delayed aircraft and is dying from the condition.
A doctor told of his family surviving with few amenities in an airport after sitting aboard a delayed plane and as attendees left, a Canadian musician regaled the audience with his now-famous YouTube hit "United Breaks Guitars."
'A disaster will happen'
Then there was Christin, a law professor at William Mitchell College who has become the face of this cause.
"We have thousands of rules that certainly take care of us when we're in the air. ... I don't know any rules or laws that protect us when we are literally prisoners on these planes on the tarmac," said Christin, as his family watched. "It does seem to me that a disaster will happen at some point. ..."
California Sen. Barbara Boxer, the bill's sponsor, said she hopes to get the bill to a vote as soon as possible, and called out the airlines for a decade of inaction on this issue. "Fool me once, OK," Boxer said. "But don't try and fool me again and again and again. It's not right."
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar also voiced her support to the packed room of stakeholders and reporters: "As I said that day: It's like common sense flew out the windows, but the windows were locked."
Scott Nason, former vice president of revenue management at American Airlines, warned the proposed bill may lead to unforeseen problems.
"If I could perfectly enumerate every possibility, then in theory you could write a bill that allowed for every one of them," Nason said. "But no one can."
Airlines have warned a three-hour deplaning option could increase flight delays because planes will have to return to the gate, and crews will exhaust their maximum time in the air.
It is unclear how the two bills will be resolved in conference if the Senate version passes, but Boxer said she will "fight very hard for a three-hour rule."
Eric Roper • 202-408-2723
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