Held hostage on tarmac

When you're stuck on an airplane that for whatever reason is not able to take off and they won't let you get off, and the wait turns into hours and hours, and there's little or no food or water, and the toilets have overflowed, and the cabin smells like a cesspool, and the passengers are in near-revolt, do not count on the airline to make everything better. Scott McCartney's WSJ column looks at how the carriers have been amazingly unresponsive to these unspeakable delays - even after several horrific incidents and even though they are usually in a position to do something about them. Among some of the ideas:

--Have buses and covered mobile staircases ready to remove passengers.

--Designate parking areas for unloading when gates aren't available.

--Allow planes to take a number, just like people waiting to buy concert tickets, so that planes can drop passengers back at gates without losing their spot in the takeoff queue.

--Offer a hotline to the airline CEO, who could break logjams.

There has been some movement by some airlines (McCartney offers some examples), but voluntary systems are unlikely to work because there is little incentive by the airlines to make it work - just as there's little incentive to provide more legroom or a seat that doesn't feel as if you're sitting on plywood. The financial pressures being felt by the airlines trump most any aspect of customer service, except for safety (we hope).

Several aviation veterans say they have come to believe, sometimes reluctantly, that Congress should limit how long people can be held on airplanes without a chance to get off a plane. Such a limit would force carriers, airports and the Federal Aviation Administration to come up with real solutions, they say.

Such monstrous delays are typically kept to a minimum at Socal airports - largely because weather delays are seldom a problem - but there are glaring exceptions. Last December a TACA Airlines flight from San Salvador to LAX - normally a 4½-hour trip - took nearly 14 hours, with nine of them spent on the ground at Ontario. From the LAT:

According to the air carrier, authorities at the Ontario airport did not allow the plane's 193 passengers to disembark Local authorities, according to the TACA statement, did not want passengers to pass through customs and enter the country. Airport officials, however, gave a different story. According to a statement from Los Angeles World Airports, which operates the Ontario facility, TACA never asked that passengers be allowed to exit the aircraft.