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AirTran Flight 373's 12-Hour Columbus Ordeal

As hard hit as Kentucky was by yesterday's storms, we think we found a few people who had it worse: The 84 passengers on AirTran Flight 373 who were stuck on a Columbus runway for 12 hours yesterday.

The Boeing 717-600 was bound for Orlando, but ice overnight had frozen it to the runway, and gallons of de-icer were defeated when continuing rain refroze the bird. (Those aboard were reportedly none too pleased when informed of how much the de-icer was costing the airline.)

The passengers, who boarded at 7:20AM, were allowed to deplane in order to get lunch, but were stuck without water or air until 4:30, when AirTran gave up on that plane and the passengers reboarded one that came in from warmer Atlanta. (A spokesperson said the fact that the passengers weren't offered food at any time was "clearly a mistake.")

The airline has offered free round-trip tickets to 373 survivors. Since we do keep score, this is AirTran's second gaffe of 2009; on New Year's Day, they pulled a family off the plane whose safety chatter was making other passengers uncomfortable, and then refused to rebook them. As if De-Icegate wasn't bad enough, AirTran reported a $273 million loss for 2008 in a press conference yesterday, a margin largely due to fuel hedges which came back to bite them when oil prices dropped. Again -- too dumb to be evil?

Related Stories:
· Orlando-bound passengers trapped in frozen plane [WESH via Tripso]
· AirTran passengers' flight to Orlando delayed for 9 hours [Orlando Sentinel]
· TK [Jaunted]
· AirTran posts $273M loss for 2008 [Triangle Business Journal]
· AirTran: Too Dumb To Be Evil? [Jaunted]

[Photo: WESH]