Rahul Chandran

April 11, 2007.

 

Chairman Inouye, Vice-Chairman Stevens, Honourable Committee Members,

It is an honor to testify today, and I thank you for the opportunity to discuss the need for improvements to airline services.

 

Over eight years have passed since I was first stranded on a tarmac in Detroit, courtesy of Northwest airlines during the now infamous incident of January 1999.  I have not thought about the incident for many years, and I am sure that the honorable members of the Committee are familiar with the incident; I simply recall many hours of miserable monotony, unpunctuated by water or food, the frequent refusal to allow customers to use the ‘facilities’, and a complete lack of information or communication.

 

In the furore that surrounded this incident, the airlines promised greater self-regulation, arguing that there was no need for legislative protection of passengers as the airlines had their best interest at heart.  The free round-trip ticket I received from Northwest as ‘compensation’ for the ordeal, I returned to Northwest.

 

Shortly thereafter, in early 2000, I was on a United flight at Washington Dulles, during a sweltering summer day, for a short-hop up to New Haven, CT.  We left the gate, sometime around 1 p.m.  Approximately four hours later, having sat in a tiny turbo-prop, with neither water, nor access to the bathrooms – and certainly no clear information, we returned to a position near a gate, and the door was opened as the passengers were near rioting.  There were, I believe, no more than eight people on board this flight.  Eight people, trapped in a metal tube designed to retain heat, on the tarmac in the hot summer sun, without air-conditioning or refreshment for four hours, are still eight people on the boundaries of reasonable tolerance.

 

On the 16^th of March, less than one month ago, and just one month after the series of incidents that affected Jet Blue, I arrived at JFK airport at 8 p.m.  Although there had been some snow, and earlier flight cancellations at other airports, the website for Cathay Pacific – the airline that was slated to carry me to Vancouver – suggested that flight 889 would take off as scheduled.  I came prepared, as several hundred thousand miles of flying have left me convinced that airline websites are rarely up-front about delays.

 

After about two hours of waiting, we boarded the plane at midnight.  I exited the same plane at 9:43 a.m, nine hours and forty-three minutes after had left the gate.  The intervening period had been passed on the runway, waiting for de-icing fluid, waiting for gates to become available, waiting for taxi space – in short, waiting.  Waiting, that is, with our seat-belts securely fastened, our seat-backs upright and tray-tables stowed, and no ability to enjoy even the little – but important – comfort of the three-inch recline that economy class offers.

 

Now in certain respects, this was the best delay I have ever encountered.  The captain was reasonably communicative about the delays, although his promises of a forty-five minute resolution were only reported as having failed after about an hour and a half.  The crew allowed passengers to use the restrooms, and offered us water.  Twice that is – once after about one hour, and once after six and a half hours.  Eventually, when the flight was cancelled – and prior to the last two hour wait for a gate – they fed us what was supposed to be our dinner.  Given that almost all the dining establishments in the terminal had stopped serving food around 10 p.m, this was a good ten and a half hours after most people had last had any food, during which they had been kept awake.

 

So we were watered twice, fed once, and sent about our way.  Upon disembarking, we received a $15 voucher for food available at the terminal.  I chose not to wait any further, and went home.

 

Honorable Senators, as I am sure you are all aware from your experiences, there comes a point when the consequences of a series of poor decisions accrete, and you have an intolerable outcome.  Plane delays happen – I continue to fly, and have been delayed in over 30 countries, for reasons that range from the real to the incredible.  Pilots need to respond to the profit-motive of their masters, and to make a good-faith effort to get their passengers off the ground, and airborne, safely.

 

It is, however, clear to me through all of these experiences that the companies that run airlines have failed to implement management procedures that prevent the intolerable outcome – passengers trapped on airplanes for more than six hours. 

 

We continue to fly because air-travel is part of the engine of economic growth that has made America the success story that it remains today.  A simple bill of rights that provides passengers with confidence that airlines will take care of their basic needs, prevents them from being confined in intolerable conditions, and ensures that airlines are responsible and held accountable for their actions will help to ensure that this remains the case.

 

Thank you for your time.