Airlines Forced To Pay Up Over Delayed Continental Flight Stuck On Tarmac
Over the summer, travel hell rained down upon about 50 passengers stuck aboard a Continental commuter jet with nowhere to go. They eventually reached their final destination, but not without a substantial delay and probably some on-board claustrophobia attacks. Thankfully the responsible parties are now going to pay up to make everything right—or at least less bad.
The US Department of Transportation has issued a fine for a cool $175,000 for the whole incident. Along with the fine, the three carriers involved also got called out for violating a law regarding deceptive practices. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood hopes that this will send a signal to the industry that this kind of stuff is not going to fly while he’s in charge. Maybe he’ll even finally light the fire under legislators to get that whole Passenger Bill of Rights thing off the ground.
Continental Airlines and ExpressJet will share $100,000 of the fine, and Mesaba Airlines will be responsible for the rest. The latter was the airline doing a less than stellar job with handling the stuff on the ground for the flight. Continenta, despite being only partly at fault, at least made sure the passengers got a full refund for their trouble. They also hooked up the passengers with additional compensation, but we don’t know what exactly that was. Let’s just hope it was some significant flight vouchers or cash, and not 5,000 frequent flier miles.
Related Stories:
· Airlines Pay $175,000 For Holding Passengers For Eight Hours [Seattle PI]
· Passengers Forced To Be Cramped Campers Aboard Regional Jet [Jaunted]
· Airline News coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Memotions]
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