Passengers Sue After Plane Delay On Snowy Runway

mpenguin1

mpenguin1

Well-Known Member
January 1, 2006

Six German airline passengers who said they were being held against their will on an aircraft stuck on the runway for hours during a snowstorm have filed "false imprisonment" charges, German police said on Saturday.

Passengers boarded the plane at Berlin's Tegel Airport at 7 a.m. on Thursday, but snow and ice delayed their takeoff. At 11:30 a.m. a man named Ingo Q. called a police emergency hotline on his cell phone and said he felt as if he was being "held hostage", the tabloid Bild reported.

Shortly after noon, Ingo Q told police again that he wanted to leave the aircraft, still waiting on the snow-covered runway. Ingo, his wife and another couple from Biesdorf near Berlin were allowed off the plane at 12:48 p.m., and it finally took off at 2:36 p.m., seven hours late, Bild said.




http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1136153202.html
 
Brings up an interesting point as to whether or not you're being "held against your will" if you're boarded on an airplane with the knowledge that they won't be going anywhere for X hours due to weather.

It'd be really interesting to see someone try to establish a precedent, although I doubt the courts would let it get to that point...
 
This sounds like a great idea. I'm going to get on a plane, and then halfway through the flight I'm going to tell them that I want to get off. If they don't land immediately, I'm going to sue. That has to be worth a couple mil, right??
 
jeskoe said:
This sounds like a great idea. I'm going to get on a plane, and then halfway through the flight I'm going to tell them that I want to get off. If they don't land immediately, I'm going to sue. That has to be worth a couple mil, right??
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Bad example, and not very accuarate to describe what happened to the passengers.

0700 - departure
Departure delayed till 1130, passengers are still on the airplane
Passenger wants to get off the airplane, reasonable request, calls the Police
Allowed off the airplane at 1248
Airplane takes off at 1436

A 7 hour departure delay & the passengers are kept on the airplane, that is just plain nonsense, it is stupidity like this that will pave thte way for assinhine lawsuits....

Now, the false imprisonment charge is going a little over the top, but, that was probably their only option.....

Company should have handled this themselves.....

The Berlin-London flight is a short flight & probably did not have a meal service & limited drinks.
 
Chris_Ford said:
Brings up an interesting point as to whether or not you're being "held against your will" if you're boarded on an airplane with the knowledge that they won't be going anywhere for X hours due to weather.

It'd be really interesting to see someone try to establish a precedent, although I doubt the courts would let it get to that point...
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Charting in unknown waters, when you hop onboard an airplane, you have a reasonable expectation to get to your antipated destination in a reasonable amount of time.

Being kept on the airplane for the 7 hour delay is nonsense, they could have let the passengers off.
 
100% nonsense. I hope this does get thrown out because we do not want some rediculous precedent to be set.
 
Foxcow said:
100% nonsense. I hope this does get thrown out because we do not want some rediculous precedent to be set.
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While I agree that the lawsuit is nonsense, I am sure that you can agree that keeping passengers on the locked in the airplane on the ground for "7" hours is nonsense as well. These were European airlines and hopefully because of this lawsuit they will establish guidelines on how to deal with weather delays.

If the crews had crew duty problems, I bet ya any money, the crews would have been replaced....
 
How soon everyone forgets.

January 1999, because of a heavy snowstorm, passengers were stranded on aircraft at Detroit, some for more than 8 hours! U.S. carrier, U.S. city. There was a big hullabaloo at the time, and lots of work on a "Passenger Bill of Rights" or something like that was trumpeted in Congress. It would be interesting if someone did some digging, but I think that it was killed before ever becoming law.

If you want some interesting (hmmph!) reading, Google "Passenger Bill of Rights" sometime.

DOT Report on the January 1999 Detroit Snowstorm


.
 
mpenguin1 said:
While I agree that the lawsuit is nonsense, I am sure that you can agree that keeping passengers on the locked in the airplane on the ground for "7" hours is nonsense as well. These were European airlines and hopefully because of this lawsuit they will establish guidelines on how to deal with weather delays.

If the crews had crew duty problems, I bet ya any money, the crews would have been replaced....
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In 30 years I've been involved in delays like this more than once. In all cases it happened because there was no way to physically get the airplane on a gate. It's just one of those things. The layout of airports and availability of gates means that in snow you can't get them off the airplane.

It's the thing that civilians can't understand. Why don't you just pull it up to the curb and drop them off? But I'd expect someone in the business to know this.
 
flyover said:
In 30 years I've been involved in delays like this more than once. In all cases it happened because there was no way to physically get the airplane on a gate. It's just one of those things. The layout of airports and availability of gates means that in snow you can't get them off the airplane.

It's the thing that civilians can't understand. Why don't you just pull it up to the curb and drop them off? But I'd expect someone in the business to know this.
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Been involved in aviation for a little while and as somebody in the business, leaving people onboard an aircraft for 7,8,10 hours is moronic.

Free a gate spot, by moving other aircraft around, if a jetbridge is non-workable, do it the old fashioned way.

Also, in the past, an aircraft was on a 6 hour holding delay for weather, well, they kept the passengers onboard the aircraft the whole time, but, replaced the crew, must have been that Star Trek technology to have gotten the crews on & off the aircraft.

Now, I am not saying that ever delay is the same, there are creeping delays, which I understand, but the 7 hour departure delay, that was stupid.
 
flyover said:
The layout of airports and availability of gates means that in snow you can't get them off the airplane.
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Then how'd you get them on the airplane? Did they board before the snow and then miraculously there was too much snow for the airport to cope? These things don't just come out of nowhere, and boarding someone knowing that they will not be going anywhere for hours is ridiculous.
 
Chris_Ford said:
Then how'd you get them on the airplane? Did they board before the snow and then miraculously there was too much snow for the airport to cope? These things don't just come out of nowhere, and boarding someone knowing that they will not be going anywhere for hours is ridiculous.
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I guess someone needs to give you a job in airport management, since you've got this one figured out.



:)





.
 
Chris_Ford said:
Then how'd you get them on the airplane? Did they board before the snow and then miraculously there was too much snow for the airport to cope? These things don't just come out of nowhere, and boarding someone knowing that they will not be going anywhere for hours is ridiculous.
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Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. In my experience, no one ever boards an airplane KNOWING they are going to strand the passengers on it for hours. The intention is to takeoff in a reasonable amount of time.

But circumstances don't go your way, and the gates fill up behind you, and the taxiways start getting jammed up and the next thing you know, you're stranded on an airplane for hours.

And yes, miraculously there was too much snow for the airport/airline to cope. Admittedly, most airline and airport employees would rather just stay home on snowy days and not even attempt to operate. But most of the time you can get most of your people to their destinations, so you come out and try anyway.

And when things go to pot there is no shortage of people like yourself who are quite sure they would have been smart enough to prevent it. Which could be quite true.
 
okay soooo..... and i do mean this honestly.... why CAN'T they just pull an airstair out to wherever the plane was sitting and bus the pax back to the terminal?
 
TXaviator said:
okay soooo..... and i do mean this honestly.... why CAN'T they just pull an airstair out to wherever the plane was sitting and bus the pax back to the terminal?
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I am curious about this as well...... :yeahthat:
 
Sometimes there's no gate to return to. You can't let them out into the SIDA and summoning a bus with an airstair in a driving snowstorm ain't gonna happen.

Ya spends ya money, ya takes ya chances is what I say!
 
Doug Taylor said:
Ya spends ya money, ya takes ya chances is what I say!
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"They bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, "Let 'em crash!!"


:buck::buck::buck:
 
mtsu_av8er said:
"They bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, "Let 'em crash!!"


:buck::buck::buck:
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They paid for an airplane ride, right? :)
 
This is a fairly retarded situation. I'd have to go with the group that says this is a no brainer to get around/figure out.

If it's snowing:

1.) Get a snowplow (if needed )
(a). Plow a path for:

2.) Get an airstair
(a). Take this to the plane

3.) Get a bus
(a). Take this to the plane

4.) Evacuate the people.
(a). Bring people back to the gate/terminal etc.


Is this so difficult?

-Perpetual
 
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