Due to quirks of winds, weather and airspace restrictions on the other side of the globe, American Airlines Flight 293 from New Delhi lands chronically early at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport during winter and early spring, data show.
Arriving ahead of plan can actually mean a 30-minute or hour wait in a jet parked on the tarmac for passengers who have just endured a marathon flight of more than 15 hours.
That's because travelers aren't allowed to exit overseas flights if there aren't customs agents around to screen them. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents who handle those duties at O'Hare don't begin work until 5 a.m., the New Delhi flight's scheduled arrival time in winter.
Flight 293's delays don't come close to violating new four-hour tarmac limits for international flights, which take effect Aug. 23. But its woes are rooted in the same red tape and staffing snarls that stranded more than 10,000 people aboard aircraft of foreign carriers for up to 11 hours at John F. Kennedy International Airport during a blizzard Dec. 26, prodding regulators to act.
Federal officials, airlines, airports and law-enforcement agencies are drafting plans to let travelers disembark from diverted or off-schedule overseas flights and into secure waiting areas. Since the Kennedy nightmare, the planning process has taken on greater urgency, government and aviation sources said.
But for now, international passengers are required to remain seated and behind closed aircraft doors at the point when most want nothing more than to get out of the giant aluminum tube.
"People get stir crazy," said Abby Alconcher, an American flight attendant who, until January, flew the New Delhi route every month for four years. Exhausted flight attendants are bombarded with pleas and complaints from passengers, some who speak little or no English. "You want to say, 'Oh, madam, I so want to get off this plane too.'"
12/05/11 Julie Johnsson/Chicago Tribune
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
0 comments:
Post a Comment