Indefinite Incarceration Seems To Be Contagious

Indefinitely Grounded

It would appear that the Bush administration has tapped the airlines to do more of its dirty work. The TSA allowed all of these passengers to board a plane, but the airline involved held them captive for 8 hours (more according to some reports). So now we have flying fortresses serving as miniature Guantanamo detention centers and the airlines serving as the long arm of the Bush administration.

The entire idea that airlines will surrender our flight information to the government as a routine step is ridiculous. In reality, 99.9999% of the people flying over the last thirty years have been innocent and only had one thing in mind: getting to their destination without a hassle.

The TSA has implemented wrong-headed security measures and has allowed commercial interests to start making a buck by allowing some passengers--those willing to pay a significant sum ($25) every time they fly and willing to submit to all but a full body and cavity search so they can get on a list of passengers allowed to use this technology--to pass through the security stations without taking off their shoes.

By the way, the threat from a "shoe bomber" is minimal. If the TSA and the airport authorities would bite the bullet and spend enough money to equip the TSA security stations with the proper technology (i.e. equipment that detects harmful chemicals and explosives), improve and upgrade the existing technology, and train the TSA security force to stop standing around with their fingers stuck up their... er, noses, then we might have some real security. But while pilots and flight attendants have to pass through stringent security measures, those working at airport restaurants, as maintenance staff and at ticket counters only have to flash a badge that could be forged or modified without much effort. Then, too, the airports are not using RFID badges for local employees, nor for those that are working flight crews. While this would be a significant expense and take some time, I know it can be done because I accomplished it for a broadband provider with over 300 sites and almost 5,000 employees.

We need to be more focused and more reasonable.

Travelers and airlines have a deal. In exchange for transporting them safely, passengers agree to give up a great deal of freedom of movement. Once aboard a plane, there’s no getting off until the crew says so. People have to sit when they’re told, buckle up and raise their seatbacks on command. In return, passengers expect the airlines to take care of them.

But several high-profile failures this past holiday travel season suggest that Congress needs to intervene and set some ground rules to enforce this deal for people unreasonably stranded on aircraft. Delays at the gate are a hassle, but extraordinary delays on planes can be dangerous for the handicapped, chronically ill, elderly or small children.

Take the passengers of American Airlines Flight 1348, whose flight from San Francisco to Dallas was diverted by bad weather to Austin, Tex. Obviously, weather is out of human control, and airlines rightly err on the side of safety rather than haste when it comes to bad weather or mechanical difficulties. Flying, particularly around the holidays, invariably entails a risk of delay.

But there is delay, and then there is detention. The passengers on Flight 1348 were trapped on the plane after it landed for another eight hours. They say there was nothing to eat but a box of pretzels, and the toilets began to stink. Passengers say they overflowed. The airline says they didn’t. The difference is not worth debating.

Passengers from that flight have revived the idea of a Passengers’ Bill of Rights, posting their ideas at the STRANDED PASSENGERS BLOG. Among the common-sense notions are procedures to get passengers back to a gate when a plane has been sitting on the tarmac for more than three hours. When delays are that long, passengers’ essential needs — food, water, medical attention and sanitation — must be met. These proposals are a good starting point for eventual legislation.

Following a similar incident in 1999, the airlines managed to avoid this sort of law through a voluntary customer service commitment. Congress should hold hearings to revisit their promises — and replace them with some requirements.