A story in today's LA Times reports that the FAA has issued fines totaling $175,000 to three airlines for stranding passengers on board aircraft overnight last August. Three aircraft from Continental, ExpressJet and Mesaba were forced to divert to Rochester, Minnesota, due to weather, but when they got there passengers were kept on the planes for an unreasonable amount of time.

I'm ecstatic to see the FAA trying to combat irrationality in airline practices and government regulations. Hopefully this will get us closer to a "Passengers' Bill of Rights," though we still have a way to go.

The Dallas News Airline Biz Blog published part of the DOT's evaluation of the situation regarding Mesaba's conduct that night. It provides some interesting background on this situation:

Apparently there were some Mesaba ground personnel at Rochester. The ExpressJet pilots asked about deplaning their passengers several times, but the Mesaba station agent was either uninformed or confused and repeatedly told the pilots that the passengers weren't allowed in the terminal. The agent was wrong and the passengers could have been allowed to get off the plane, but instead they got to suffer. It's an unfortunate situation and Mesaba could definitely have done more to help.

Unfortunately, I'm not very impressed with ExpressJet's efforts as reported in the DOT statement. The pilots on the aircraft could have called TSA or the airport manager to verify the rules about deplaning passengers or just requested to have security personnel on site to manage the passengers. The pilots also had to deal with their dispatcher urging them to keep the passengers on the plane for a possible resumption of the flight. So, the airline wasn't helping its own passengers. Finally, the most telling part of the DOTs response for me was this quote:

"At any rate, based on the Enforcement Office's review of the applicable Federal Aviation Regulations and discussions with FAA staff, while the decision for an air carrier to take off or cancel a flight is a joint dispatcher/pilot decision, no FAA requirement prohibits a pilot from solely deciding to deplane his or her aircraft's passengers. In this instance, the Enforcement Office contends that the flight crew asked to have the passengers deplaned before there was any 'ongoing argument.'"

I may be over-interpreting my authority here, but it sounds like the DOT just reiterated the fact that a Pilot in Command is the final authority for the safe operation of his or her aircraft. This pilot had the authority to deplane his own passengers. Although the pilot would have still had to deal with TSA concerns and ground personnel, he didn't need the permission of his dispatcher to deplane his passengers.

That being said, I don't presume to pass judgement on the pilot. With the economy the way it is and the work environment of regional jet pilots being hostile at best, this pilot probably had more than enough pressure on him to avoid making a command decision for several hours. I think he could have done more for his passengers, but I expect that his airline's policies were more of a factor here.

FoxBusiness quotes U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood as saying, "I hope that this sends a signal to the rest of the airline industry that we expect airlines to respect the rights of air travelers. We will also use what we have learned from this investigation to strengthen protections for airline passengers subjected to long tarmac delays.”

Those are great words and I hope he backs them up. We definitely need to realize that there were many forces at play here. Misinformation, failure to know and understand applicable regulations, poor communication, and airline policy were all factors. Another major concern for me is the fact that the TSA is willing to impose significant security restrictions on airports, but when an unusual situation caused a need for TSA to be flexible, they were unable to help these airline passengers with their basic human needs. Trying to balance security and basic human needs is a very difficult problem to solve. We have some very strict TSA regulations right now. I think they are generally needed. However, if the TSA expects them to be obeyed, they need to have people on site to enforce them...even in unusual situations. Part of any eventual Bill of Rights will be addressing these security concerns.