I have a question that is probably stupid, but I’m asking it anyway.
I seriously cannot imagine being in a situation where I’m forced to sit in a seat for 5+ **HOURS **not able to get up, move about, stretch, etc. I have my entire thorasic and lumbar spine fused, so I have a limit of a few hours **maxium **that I can sit without significant and excruciating pain if I am not allowed to stretch.
So if that happened and I were on the plane, how could I get off? I hate to be a total selfish bitch, but after seriously about 4 hours there’s no way I wouldn’t yell "I’VE GOT A BOMB!’ and take my chances with federal fucking prison. It is entirely unreasonable, IMHO, to force anyone to stay in a place like an airplane seat for that long and I would honest to god do anything I could to escape from it.
So what I’m saying is, would a chest clutching heart attack make them open the door and let you out? Palpitations? Seizure? Because I’m telling you right now, if I ever get in that situation ONE of them is getting faked and I’m getting the fuck off that plane. SCREW that. They can reboard the damned thing when a plane is available that can take off. That is BS of the highest order.
What would they do if you stood up? They can’t possibly have told people no standing, could they? No standing? No peeing? Did people freaking piss the seats?
Not a whoosh. When I’ve been stuck in long waits (not this long) the idea is that the plane might move at any minute, and they don’t want to take the time to get everyone seated again before it can.
I was on a Continental flight once that was delayed so long that the pilot decided to risk serving the meal while we were still on the ground (a long time ago, obviously.)
I suspect they let (or can’t stop) a few people at a time from going to the bathroom.
What do people think the odds are of this being fatal to Jet Blue? They had a really good reputation before, now totally shot.
You must not travel much. On the tarmac they don’t/can’t use climate control. I remember being soaked with sweat due to a relatively insignficant 20 minute delay in Albuquerque in summer. On a five hour flight, you can also get up to go to the bathroom. Most airlines don’t let you leave your seat once they push away from the gate, until they are at cruising altitude with the seatbelt sign off, so you’re stuck in your seat fo the length of time you’re waiting to fly.
So the five hour flight is climate controled, you can stand up to stretch your legs, they give you a snack, and you can pee… When you’re on the tarmac, you’re sitting immobilized in a tin box that’s cooking on asphalt with no food or drink.
Given that the planes were delayed due to snow, I doubt they were ‘cooking on asphalt’.
And for what it’s worth, my only experience with extended tarmac delays were on WestJet, and they a) turned on the TVs and allowed electronics to be used b) had the air conditioning on c) served beverages d) allowed people to use the washrooms and e) were about to give start handing out free food except the plan finally took off and it was a short flight.
So the kind of hell on earth described isn’t necessarily always the case, nor am I clear that it was the case for the JetBlue passengers.
Since this unconscionably long waiting on the tarmac deal has occurred at least three times in recent years, and Jet Blue’s response is to promise only to imprison you for a maximum of five hours, then unfortunately we will need Congress to pass legislation to guarantee decent treatment for flyers.
Which is ridiculous - the private sector ought to be able to figure this out.
I’m pretty well off physically, but there is no freaking way that I would sit in a seat for more than an hour or so. I would HAVE to get up because I’d get too uncomfortable.
Another question that may be dumb: If the imprisoned passengers on the tarmac really couldn’t stand it another minute, could they open the emergency exit and slide out?
I once waited for 3 hours on the tarmac of Winnipeg Airport because …wait for it… it was too cold( What, Winnipeg in February cold? Who could have seen that coming?) and the plane won’t start (or something). It was night time and I couldn’t be sure, but I swear I saw groundcrews running around with big booster cables trying to jumpstart the engines.
In other news, Winnipeg nominated for Worst City in Canada!
How much airline flying have you done? You MUST have your seat belt on once you have left the gate, and you are supposed to keep it on and remain in your seat until the plane reaches cruising altitude. Same thing with the upright seats.
Don’t ask me WHY, I just know it’s the rules. Same with no electronic devices.
The time I had the three hour wait (in Newark, of all places), they let us walk around at least for part of the time. I remember walking up to the front (where they had the door open to cool things down a bit) to talk to the flight attendant. (My question was if I could stay at a hotel that night and fly out the next morning – on their dime. The answer was no.) People could stand, but the aisles can only hold so many people, so I stayed in my seat most of the time anyway.
If you use your mind to repeatedly stab the captain with imaginary daggers, does that count as an act of terrorism?
The previously mentioned loss of environmentals would be my number one. Beyond that though, what a bummer if you sat on the tarmac for 5 hours and then took off on a lengthy flight. That would truly suuuuuuck.
This is all very disturbing. Surely they must let people use the toilet. I almost always have a beer or two in the lounge and have to imagine that I’d have to take a pee sooner or later within 5 hours. I’ve never spent more than an hour or so on the tarmac, and that was intolerable. I guess those barf bags probably can hold urine, eh?
What legal right does an airline have to force you to stay on a plane for even five minutes? That Jet Blue incident on the tarmac gets me enraged just reading about it. I don’t think I could have stood it, especially if I had my kids on board. Would I have any legal right to leave the plane? What if all the passengers just kicked out the emergency doors and left en masse?
The airline’s callous response and lack of explanation for the incident is especially maddening. It boils down to little more than, “Oh, sorry about that. Here’s your money back.” That’s just not good enough. At least I know never to fly Jet Blue.
My question exactly. It does seem like, for some reason, airports are bizzaro world legal-wise. Forbidden words (“bomb”), pissing off a flight attendant, and things like that. They can cop you some major grief.
I’ve already posted elsewhere - I was stuck on the tarmac at JFK, although with BA rather than Jet Blue. After a half hour or so, the rules pretty much disappeared - phones, seatbelts, toilets, all were in action. Which was good, because we had three more hours. After a flight in from London
When it happened to me, the FA implied, but did not say outright, that I could leave but I’d lose my flight. How they would have gotten me back in the terminal was not discussed. This was a long time ago, and things may have changed since then.
If you’re really curious, why not ask? I was in a dispute on another message board about airline policy*, and so took it upon myself to write an e-mail to an airline. In fact, it was Jet Blue. They got back to me in a day or two. Very helpful.
*This issue, BTW, was about who owns the recline space – the person reclining, or the person about to do dentistry on the person reclining. Turns out there was no formal policy, but my question apparently caused a riff among workers there – they argued about it too. Since the person actually answering me was on the recliner side of the argument, that became the official answer.
