Passengers Kept on Plane for Hours

MINNEAPOLIS -- By its sixth hour of sitting on a deserted tarmac in Rochester, Minn., Continental Express Flight 2816 had taken on the smell of dirty diapers and an overwhelmed toilet.

What should have been a 2 1/2 -hour trip from Houston to Minneapolis had moved into its ninth hour, and the 47 passengers on the plane had burned through the pretzels and drinks on board.

And the terminal, where passengers could at least stretch their legs, breathe fresh air and use the vending machines, was a mere 50 yards away.

But it wasn't until 6 a.m. Saturday -- six hours after landing -- that Flight 2816's passengers were allowed off the plane.

Continental Airlines on Monday deferred most questions to ExpressJet Airlines, the regional carrier that operated the flight. But Continental apologized to the passengers, calling the incident "completely unacceptable" and offering refunds and vouchers for future travel.

There have been longer waits on tarmacs in recent years, but the Flight 2816 delay gives the airline industry another black eye and could give a lift to legislation aimed at preventing such nightmare scenarios.

"It was almost a surreal quality that kind of developed during the night," passenger Link Christin said. "It felt like you were trapped in a cave underground."

After severe weather forced air controllers to divert Flight 2816 to Rochester, Continental's dispatchers in Minneapolis decided to wait out the storms rather than cancel the flight and bus passengers the remaining 85 miles.

Christin said a female voice shouted back asking if anyone wanted a drink. "And for the next five hours, there was no offer of drink or food," said Christin, a St. Paul resident.

The passengers remained calm, Christin said. But he described a difficult environment where sleep was scarcely possible, with babies crying and not enough blankets or pillows. Adding to the frustration were periodic announcements that led passengers to think they would soon be moving.

At 5 a.m., the flight got clearance. But by then, its crew had worked more than the legal limit of hours. Another crew had to be flown in.

At 6 a.m., ExpressJet let the passengers off the plane. It took 2 1/2 hours for the passengers to re-board the plane -- still with a full toilet -- to head to Minneapolis. They landed at 9:15 a.m., nearly 12 hours after leaving Houston.

Kristy Nicholas, a spokeswoman for ExpressJet, said passengers couldn't go to the terminal to wait because they would have needed to redo their security screening and screeners had gone home.

The airport manager, Steven Leqve, said that wasn't true. He said passengers could have waited in a secure area. "This is not an airport issue. This is an airline issue," he said.

Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), chairman of the Commerce Committee's aviation subcommittee, said the incident underscores the need to pass legislation setting a three-hour limit for an airplane to sit on the tarmac without passengers being allowed off. A "passenger bill of rights" that would do that recently passed the Commerce Committee and awaits action in the full Senate.