I really would like to understand more how this can happen.
Greg, does United have any policies related to this sort of thing? What are the potential causes for being stuck for such a long time?
Kent, unfortunately, I have no idea about the specifics of this incident. I wasn't there and there is not enough information in the article. My distrust of anything the print media does has me screaming sensationalism. But I digress.
I don't know if we have policies about this sort of thing. It is not in the interests of the company to keep people on the airplane longer than necessary.
I DO know that unless the delay is more than two hours, once the people are on the airplane, they are not to get off, even if we are at the gate with the door open. I have no idea why that is. BTDT this last week.
There was no excuse in my opinion for not finding a way to get the people off in Austin. It isn't that big a place, and there aren't that many flights, IIRC. So I really have no idea what the cause was there.
I am pretty sure we have no way of getting people off the airplanes if they are not at a gate. We do not have any airplanes with built in stairs since we retired the 727. So unless we are at the gate, we would need some sort of portable stairs. At O'Hare, I am not aware of any available. Maybe Signature has one, but I have not seen it.
As far as the catering trucks go, we don't own any anymore. That is all contracted out. I would think liability issues would disuade the contractor from letting us use them as people movers. We have no control over that.
I was involved in a long delay once. We were taxiing out at O'Hare and they issued a ground stop for all eastbound departures. We were sandwiched in on a taxiway. No way to go forward, no way to go back. We were stuck there for 6 hours or so. No way to get off the airplane. In the meantime, arrivals kept comming. Gates filled up, no one was leaving.
No gates no way to get off the airplane. False imprisionment? No case. Frustrated people? You bet. The solution decisions are way above my pay grade. But I guaran damned tee you that we will not purchase a bunch of expensive equipment for the once every several year problem like that. Capital is too tight.