STEVEN W LEQVE
HELGERSON DR. SW
ROCHESTER, MN 55902
Phone 507-282-2328

thats his office number – but the guys in the control tower have his cell and home number – here is the after hours number – 507-254-1161

I’m am darn surprised there was not a single pilot or lawyer on that flight . . . all it would take is a blackberry.

And a call to 911 about being held hostage on an airliner -

The pilot in command, that being the Captain, has exclusive authority to make such decisions as he sees fit to care for his passengers and the safety and integrity of the airport.

The Airport they landed at, Rochester, KRST, has a 24 hour fixed base operator, Signature Aviation. The could have EASILY taxied over to the FBO, and let everyone off to use Signature very nice facilities, get a car, or be picked up by others. They were 70 miles from MSP.

The CAPTAIN of this flight dropped the ball; whether by ignorance, or a naive desire to not offend the boss, or by direct order, he just sat on his hands and did nothing. Sure, it would have cost Expressjet a couple grand to use Signature’s space – but then again – perhaps Signature would have used the free press to its advantage and donated the coffee, very tasty choco chip cookies they make and otherwise made everyone comfortable.

If this is not a clear message that flying airlines is nuts, nothing is. Today I left Davenport Iowa [which does not have airline service] at 8am EDT, after having gotten out of bed at 6.30am Eastern time, flew to Beaufort SC [which also does not have airline service], landed at 12.50pm, and was sitting in my house at 1.15pm. My mother in law, who refused to fly in ‘little airplanes’ is STILL not at Savannah yet because of AIRLINE delays in ATL from the weather we flew through.

BTW – the implied contract provisions that require the airline to tell the truth gets the all the time in claims raised against them. You see, here, the airline told the passengers that the ‘TSA held them on board because there was no one at the airport to bring in TSA off hours. Thats pure bull. The captain could have EASILY exercised his pilot in command authority, taxied over to Signature, and then stay on the airplane with the crew to ‘guard’ it so TSA could easily search it and affirm it is still clean and sterile. Wimp.

Something needs to be done to get these airlines’ attention.

Continental’s episode earlier this week with the babies trapped on the plane overnight without provision for food or water, and confined in a highly disease-prone environment (with the overfilled toilet), sounds like negligent child abuse–if not worse. Even negligent child abuse is a pretty serious crime, and I don’t see why no one is talking about it.

Forget the piddly fines. An indictment or two might really set a different tone when it comes to passenger service.

M.

Or you mean what clause in Continental’s contract of carriage won’t necessarily lead to the fine? They can write whatever contract they see fit, but that won’t always stop a government regulatory agency from enforcing their position on them unless, say, a judge says otherwise.