Could I have gotten off the plane on the runway?
I was recently on a United flight from Denver to Oakland. First there was a light on. Then they "fixed" the plane. Then we tried to take off, never picked up speed and stopped again. They worked on the plane some more. Then we had to wait ten minutes for the brakes to cool. While we were doing this, the captain came on and announced that he was going to turn off the plane because we were low on gas and he didn't want to go back to the terminal. So when we were waiting for the brakes to cool, I definitely wanted to get off of that plane. I would have been that one guy who throws a fit. But I REALLY wanted to get off. So if I were to demand to get off the plane, what is their legal obligation, if any? Thanks.
Air Travel - 5 Answers
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1 :
Way to ruin the flight for everyone else.
2 :
Well, you didn't get off of the aircraft (evidently) and you seem to have made it to Oakland in one piece? It is obvious that the airline's maintenance staff did actually "fix" the problem. If the aircraft was not in an airworthy condition, it wouldn't have been flown. The Captain, as the most knowledgeable person on board, made the decision to get the aircraft repaired and then to continue with the journey. The quick repair should tell you just how minor these problems were. If the flight would have been severely delayed or even cancelled, you would have have rights, but it wasn't. It was fit to fly, it got you to your destination and you were obviously kept well-informed of what was going on. That sounds like pretty decent service to me.
3 :
The "light" that you refer to can be related to one of dozens of aircraft systems that we monitor in the cockpit. With more advanced aircraft these days (meaning more and more computers) sometimes the errors we get are not due to an actual problem with the aircraft, but a glitch with the computer that monitors that system, or the sensor that reports to the computer. In order to provide redundency and safety, there is not just one big computer on a plane, but many smaller ones that all speak to each other. I digress. We have many resources to guide us to tell if a particular light is a safety concern, or a minor annoyance that we can clear up without canceling a flight or taking a long delay. We consult onboard trouble shooting guides, and are often talking to our maintenence control on the radio. Understand that we cannot take off without 1) solving the problem or 2) determining that the problem is not a hazard to flight and continuing after declaring that part of the system inopertive, and of course documenting this in the aircraft logs. What most likely occured on you flight is they thought they had cleared up the fault, but when they applied take off power, it returned, so they did what is called a low speed abort. Still it takes a lot of braking power to stop a machine that weight tens to hundreds of thousands of pounds. Brakes getting hot is a normal occurance, and we must allow them to cool. Now for the fuel, we plan for how much fuel we need for the flight, how much to divert to another airport if needed, and then some extra for planned delays. Then we add a little extra for the time spent on the ground before takeoff. At take we must have the fuel we needed for flight, not one drop less. Engines, even at idle on the ground, burn a tremdous amount of fuel. Instead many aircraft have a miniature engine in the back of the plane that burns a fraction of the fuel, and provides electricty and air conditioning. This saves losing an hour or more trying to return to a gate, possibly off loading passengers in order to refuel just a little bit of gas. Your captain was trying to minimize the effects of what was most likely a non-critical system fault which could be cleared up and not cancel or severly delay the flight. Obviously you made it safely to tell all of us your tale.
4 :
It's a gray area, legally, and it hasn't been tested much. On the one hand, the crew and airline can argue that safety and security restrictions require that you remain on board; but on the other hand, holding you against your will is generally illegal in most jurisdictions. So it just depends. In practice, probably whoever had the best lawyer would win. Additionally, since people are so afraid of everything these days, if you create a scene you'll probably be the one who gets in trouble, because anything the slightest bit out of the ordinary these days is considered "terrorism." Part of it depends on how long you are sitting there. If it has only been a few minutes, the court of public opinion will probably convict you if you insist on getting off. If you've been there for hours, it might be more lenient. After a long wait (hours), I'd be tempted to just open a door myself, go down the slide, and walk back to the terminal. I'd surely get into trouble, but it would be an interesting test case. You've got to draw the line somewhere: there has to be some time limit on how long an airline can expect you to remain in their hot, unsanitary airplane without relief. Congress has taken steps on this, but airlines all want exemptions from the new rules, and since it's easy to buy favors from Congress, it's not clear if the rules will truly be applied.
5 :
The crew does not have an obligation to "let you off" the plane, and, while on the runway or a taxiway, probably have an obligation to prevent you from doing that. Messing about with the flight crew very quickly gets you into troubles with federal law - I don't think you want to go there. In this era, I would not at all be surprised if the cabin crew was quickly assisted by multiple passengers in an effort to restrain you from opening a door, or in the event that you actually did "throw a fit" as you say.