Comments on: Continental’s Overnight Excursion in Rochester, Minnesota

By: steve

steve — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:22:33 +0000

That sounds terrible. Every time I fly, I spend half the time asking myself why I did this to myself again. I hope we finally get some bullet trains in this country!

By: KT

KT — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:43:25 +0000

I continue to say…..

After 2 hours…ask the flight attandant to get off the plane.

When refused…..USE YOUR CELL PHONE

Call 911

Tell the answering operator that you are being held against your will – AKA hostage – by the airline

Call 411 and get the phone number for the local TV and Radio station

Call both and tell them you are being held against your willl

The more people do this, the less likely this will occur

By: CF

CF — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:23:24 +0000

Joseph Blazewicz wrote:

Making a 3hrs law is one thing and enforcing it is another. There should be a law on this matter.

What good is a law if you can't enforce it?

By: Joseph Blazewicz

Joseph Blazewicz — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:25:33 +0000

Making a 3hrs law is one thing and enforcing it is another. There should be a law on this matter.

By: National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation

National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:31:02 +0000

[...] This week, The Cranky Flier posted his assessment of Flight 2816 too. [...]

By: SD Flyer

SD Flyer — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:07:49 +0000

This is why Americans are scared when government takes over certain function in society; they all go by the book and as said in the article, lose common sense.

I also don’t understand why the operator of this airport is not to blame for this disaster.

By: steve

steve — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:52:08 +0000

Its simple, the crew should have declared an emergency, because it was an emergency: by definintion: a state, esp. of need for help or relief, created by some unexpected event: ie: a weather emergency.

Police have keys to the airport, firefighters have a ladder. The crew has carte blanche to do whatever they need to do once declaring the emergency and the TSA can’t touch them. Afterwards you might have to do a carpet dance, but it would have been worth it.

By: Stephen Dutton

Stephen Dutton — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:41:20 +0000

@ Michael C. Berch:
“I am the pilot in command of this aircraft and
my passengers and I WILL BE DEPLANING. Have a jetway (or airstairs)
ready, because we’re parking at Gate ___.” And his company would have
backed him up. (I guess airstairs in this case if the jetways were all in use.)

But I imagine that the ExpressJet captain and FO were worried that
they would have been fired or disciplined if they had done that. In
some ways it’s related to the root cause of the Colgan crash in
Buffalo.

Good Point…because it will cost the company money..as always.

By: Barry

Barry — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:32:12 +0000

It was fear that the TSA would tell them they did something wrong…period. When you have such a heavy handed gov. then people won’t make sensible decisions!

By: Michael C. Berch

Michael C. Berch — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:56:06 +0000

I think the real cause of this incident is the low status
and working conditions of pilots flying for regional and commuter
carriers. If that had been a mainline CO aircraft (or any of the
major network carriers) I believe the captain would have called
airport ops and said, “I am the pilot in command of this aircraft and
my passengers and I WILL BE DEPLANING. Have a jetway (or airstairs)
ready, because we’re parking at Gate ___.” And his company would have
backed him up. (I guess airstairs in this case if the jetways were all in use.)

One of my former apartment mates had been a commuter pilot for Great
Lakes, and besides a salary of $18,000/year (eek!) the pilots were
treated not much better than burger-flippers at McDonalds. He left
Great Lakes to be a paramedic, which he said was a *much* better job,
even though he loved to fly.