Kiger's Notebook

Pilot of nightmare flight pleaded to have passengers let in airport

The tale of the tape may tell a different story than Mesaba/Delta Airline staff have been saying about the controversial night that a Continental plane sat parked on the Rochester International Airport tarmac for more than six hours with 47 passengers aboard.

The captain of Continental Express Flight 2816 pleaded unsuccessfully for her 47 passengers to be allowed to get off and go inside the terminal, according to recordings of radio chatter released by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Heard on recordings is a local representative of Mesaba/Delta repeatedly turning down the pilot’s pleas to allow passengers to enter the Rochester terminal.

The excuse was they could not come in because Transportation Security Administration personnel had left for the day.

That was incorrect — passengers could have stayed in a separate “sterile” area, said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

Rochester Airport Manager Steve Leqve said this morning that he’s disappointed with the news. He said Mesaba/Delta staff had repeatedly assured him previously that a number of offers had been made to the pilot to allow the passengers out of the cramped plane and into the airport.

“I was a little misled here, obviously,” he said.

Mesaba was the only airline with staff still at the airport during the incident earlier this month. The plane bound for the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport plane left Houston at 9:23 p.m. Aug. 11, but was diverted to Rochester because of storms in the Twin Cities. Passengers were kept for about six hours waiting inside the plane with wailing babies and a smelly toilet even though they were only 50 yards from a terminal, according to passengers. 

The recording still does not change the airport’s part in the incident, Leqve says.

“The airport terminal was in fact available to the passengers. It was up to Mesaba/Delta to communicate that,” he said. “The airport does not have the authority to order anything like that. It was not an airport issue.”

In the morning the hungry and tired passengers were allowed to get off the plane. They spent about 2 1/2 hours inside the terminal before reboarding the same plane. They arrived in Minneapolis after 11 a.m.

“There was a complete lack of common sense here,” said LaHood in a statement. “It’s no wonder the flying public is so angry and frustrated.”

Leqve also is frustrated with the whole situation, which is damaging the airport’s reputation.

“I don’t want the airport thrown under the bus,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Nightmare flight publicity - terminal for Rochester's image?

Here's another "smelly flight" story. Thanks to USA Today and Wikipedia for the graphic.

Is national coverage of last weekend’s “flight from hell” damning Rochester’s image as a visitor-friendly city?

“I think that a bad situation went from bad to worse to a nightmare, and we, as the city, are kind of trapped in the mediade bacle, if you will,” says Brad Jones, executive director of the Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Rochester is accustomed to being mentioned in the national media, from CNN to the New York Times. However, the current stream of stories about the luckless 47 passengers who sat locked in a plane for six hours Saturday morning at Rochester International Airport are not the type local officials like to hear.

Continental flight 2816 flying from Houston, Texas, to Minneapolis was forced by bad weather to land in Rochester about 12:30 a.m. Saturday. Trying to work out a new flight plan and waiting for the weather to improve, the flight crew kept the passengers on the plane until 6:30 a.m.

Passengers complained of overtaxed toilets, no food or water and general physical discomfort.

Passengers were told that Rochester security screeners had gone home for the night and that the terminal did not have enough staff to accommodate them. An airline spokeswoman also said in early reports that the airport did not offer to let the passengers inside.

However, Steve Leqve, the Rochester airport manager, said the terminal was open, staffed and available to the passengers.

Coverage of the event puts Rochester in a poor light, and “that can be damaging,” Jones said. “It could still be damaging.”

Media coverage of the story prompted Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede to issue a statement praising the actions of the airport staff.

“They were not at fault for doing their job,” he wrote.

Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, thinks that Rochester airport will be exonerated of any wrongdoing and that the incident will bring much-needed change. He believes the incident will cause the Passengers Bill of Rights being considered by federal lawmakers to fly to approval.

“I think they (the airport staff) were sort of co-victims along with the passengers,” says Mitchell. “I think when we look back in a few years, I think Rochester will be the catalyst that helped get this done.”

While that sounds fine to Jones, he is still concerned how the publicity might affect the flow of Mayo Clinic patients, conventioneers and tournament athletes who fly into Rochester each year.

“We’re hoping that the facts will come out and that everybody will acknowledge that the airport and the city did the right thing,” Jones said.

ExpressJets responds - They planned to fly smelly plane

OK, after talking to the Rochester International Airport Manager Steve Leqve, I called back Kristy Nicholson of ExpressJets to respond to his comments that the airline choose to keep the 47 passengers of the ill fated and odoriferous Continental/ ExpressJets flight cooped up in a small plane  Rochester's tarmac through Saturday night.

And she sent me a response that seems to make it clear who made the decision to keep the passengers in their seats from 12:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. after more than two hours in the air.

And I need to thank the gang at the "Snakes on a Plane" movie for the incidental art to run with this piece. I know there were no snakes on this plane, but I bet the comfort level was comparable.

Jeff,

Please find the additional information requested below.

The intention prior to the crew reaching their duty day limits was to operate the flight.

A new flight plan routing around the weather was provided at approximately 3:00 AM; however, additional fuel was required for safety reasons.

By the time the r efueling occurred, the severe weather moved from MSP to RHT and the flight was unable to depart safely.

The crew then timed out, but the customers were able to enter the terminal and wait on the arrival of the new crew.

Kind regards,

Kristy Nicholas

ExpressJet Airlines, Inc.

Roch. airport manager responds on smelly flight from Hell

As the story spread nationwide of the passengers kept for 6 hours inside a plane sitting on the Rochester International Airport tarmac, the airport manager insisted the terminal was open all night long.

Steve Leqve said the 47 passengers could have gone there at any time.

“The decision for that airplane to stay out on that ramp was strictly Continental dispatch’s,” he said today, responding to comments from Continental and ExpressJets about the snafu over Flight 2816.

After taking off from Houston, Texas, en route to Minneapolis, the flight was forced by bad weather to land in Rochester at about 12:30 a.m. Then for what the airline describes as safety and security regulations, the 47 passengers were kept inside the small plane until 6:30 a.m., when they were allowed to get off and go into the airport.

The 47 were then loaded back onto the same plane at 9:30 a.m. and finally arrived at their destination about 12 hours late.

The tale of travel woe spread quickly this weekend and has been the subject of CNN and USA Today stories.

Passengers were told that the airport screeners available to check the passengers had gone home and that the terminal did not have enough staff to accommodate the passengers.

“I staff the airport 24 hours, seven days a week. That was not a problem,” Leqve says. “If it were an airport decision, there would have been no question that they would have been allowed in, but it was not an airport decision.”

Continental originally referred all questions about the flight to ExpressJets, which actually managed the flight.

Kristy Nicholas of ExpressJets said that the airport did not offer to allow the passengers into the terminal.

Quite the opposite, says Leqve. Docking a plane at a gate is an airline, not airport duty, he says. And he says that the Delta Airline staff repeatedly called Continental’s corporate dispatchers Saturday offering to allow the passengers out of the plane.

“For whatever reason, Continental held the line to keep the people on the airplane… with the hopes — I suppose — that the weather would break and they would be able to continue their flight.”

Jet set: Hours locked in a plane on the ground

Here's my take on Continental plane full of pris..uh...passengers parked at the Rochester airport for hours.

This was pointed out to me after 6 p.m. Sunday. Let me tell you, finding several airline PR reps on a Sunday night was interesting. The manager of the Rochester International Airport was, for the record, easy. Steve Leqve does make himself available and I appreciate that.

Passengers of Continental Airlines Flight 2816 spent most of their trip from Houston, Texas, to Minneapolis parked on the ground in Rochester.

But why they were kept in a cramped and increasingly smelly plane from 12:30 a.m. Saturday until at least 6:30 a.m. is up in the air.

Instead of arriving in Minneapolis a little after midnight Saturday, the Continental jet with 47 passengers was diverted to Rochester because of bad weather. On the airport’s tarmac, they began a long, cramped six-hour wait on the plane.

An ExpressJet spokeswoman Kristy Nicholas said today that regulations forced the situation.

She said by the time the plane landed in Rochester, the flight crew had reached maximum work hours, so another crew had to be flown in. 

Passengers recounted stories of spending the night on the small plane, with the smell of an overused bathroom and infants that ran out of diapers. Bags of pretzels were the only food the passengers received earlier in the flight.

“This was a sardine can, with a single row of seats on one side of the plane and two rows of seats on the other,” said Link Christen of Minneapolis. “It was a nightmare.”

Passengers were kept on the plane until about 6:30 a.m. and then loaded back onto it at 9:30 a.m. after a few hours in the terminal. Christen said they landed in the Twin Cities about 11 a.m. Saturday.

While it was a Continental flight, it was the airline ExpressJet that handled the trip. ExpressJet, at first, explained the situation as a series of problems, including what Nicholas described as Rochester International Airport not having screeners available to check the passengers. Steve Leqve, the manager of the Rochester International Airport, says that was not correct.

“They wouldn’t have had to go through security. They could have come into the airport,” he said.

“My staff doesn’t park airplanes. It’s not an airport issue, it’s a corporate decision. I’m not sure what the communication was with them and Delta, which could have helped.”

Nicholas later issued a statement: “We were trying to keep their (passenger) safety and the Homeland Security regulations as our two highest priorities.”

What does DHL's pullout mean to Roch.?

Because I look at everything through the lens of "What does that mean for Southeastern Minn.?", I called the Rochester International Airport to check on the impact from DHL's surrender to FedEx and UPS.

By the way, I got wind of this Friday and now the hammer has fallen.

Here's some details I welded into an AP wire piece:

Deutsche Post AG is closing all of its struggling DHL Express service centers, cutting 9,500 jobs in the United States and halting U.S.-only domestic shipping by land and air, the German company said Monday.

That will include the DHL Express Center based at the Rochester International Airport. It has 30 employees, according to the airport.

While it will impact jobs and shipping in the area, the cuts will not change the air cargo traffic here.

“They no longer fly an airplane in here,” said Airport Manager Steve Leqve this morning. He said DHL moved its cargo flights to the Twin Cities in July and has been running just ground shipments through the Rochester center.

The cuts are part of a wider plan to curtail operations in the U.S., including domestic ground and delivery services though its international shipping won’t be affected.

Part of the plan calls for the halt to domestic shipping by Jan. 30.

“The retained U.S. international express network with a total of 3,000 to 4,000 employees will be tailored to the needs of the group’s international express service customers,” the shipping giant said in a statement.

Northwest/ Delta merger + Rochester = …?

Here's a quick local take on the creation of the world's largest air carrier:

News of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines completing their $2.8 billion merger does not worry Rochester airport officials. 

In fact, it might even mean new destinations being added to the Rochester International Airport’s flight schedule.

“We like to look at things in a positive way,” says Airport Manager Steve Leqve. “Now beside Northwest’s hubs of Minneapolis, Detroit and Memphis, this adds new hubs like Atlanta and Salt Lake City as well as JFK in New York.”

So as the changes take shape, Leqve says “I’d like to visit with Delta about a flight to the Atlanta hub.”

How else could this creation of the world’s largest air carrier in the U.S.impact Rochester’s service?

“We expect to have the same number of flights in the near future…though the paint jobs may change. Basically, we expect it will be business as usual,” he said.

On the national scene, business definitely was not usual as the new jumbo airline deal lifted off after idling so long on the runway.

Delta and Northwest closed the deal just hours after the Justice Department said it had no antitrust objections.

Looking for info about royal visitors

I hear that a group of royal visitors are in Rochester. And the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. is/was here with the group.

A 747 plane starting in Saudi Arabia landed in Rochester Saturday. None leaving Rochester have returned o Saudi Arabia.

I'm looking for any interaction/ sightings that people have had with this group.

The reason I'm trying to track this down is that the rumor mill puts the economic impact this group is having on Rochester as significant.

Also it would be interesting to talk to them about the Middle East patient connection to Mayo Clinic.

And if the loose lips are correct, this royal Saudi group is staying at a different place than the last group I confirmed did. I wonder if there is any significance to that, particularly related to investment in facilities by the business, Also it could mean the spot usually taken by high-end visitors might be occupied.

I appreciate any help that you can offer.

Allegiant, Roch's Vegas airline, showing growth

Allegiant Air, the airline that flies from Rochester to Las Vegas twice a week, says that its passenger growth is taking off, and its planes are full.

The Las Vegas-based airline released its passenger traffic report for June and for the second quarter on Wednesday.

In June, 375,413 passengers flew with the airline, up from 281,977 in June 2007. That’s a 33.1 percent increase.

Allegiant also reported for the second quarter of 2008 that it transported 1.048 million passengers, up from 753,716 in 2007. That’s a 39.2 percent increase.

The “load factor,” or number of available seats filled, was 91.3 percent, up from 86.9 percent in June 2007.
Allegiant began offering two direct flights a week from Rochester International Airport to Las Vegas in April 2007.

Northwest Airlines: List is "…wild, unfounded speculation"

This morning Northwest Airlines weighed in about the list 100 regional airports forecasted as being in danger of losing flights or all air service.

So I took the e-mail from Kristin Baur with a statement by corpoate VP Tammy Lee and whipped up a short story. And here it is coming in for an early landing:

“Wild, unfounded speculation” is what Northwest Airlines officials are calling a list released Wednesday of airports possibly in danger of losing flights.

Kevin Mitchell of the Business Travel Commission listed 100 regional airports — including the Rochester International Airport — that he says could lose flights or all air service as the price of fuel oil rises.

“The report issued by the BTC -- which is an egregious attempt to scare small communities into thinking they will lose service — is based solely on one person’s opinion, not on actual schedules published by the airlines,” stated Northwest’s Tammy Lee in a response this morning.

Mitchell, who formed BTC in 1994 as an advocacy group for large business travel buyers, said the list was based on an estimate that the airline industry will need to be reduced by 20 to 22 percent in response to high fuel costs. He did not research individual market conditions in areas like Rochester.

He set a series of criteria to predict each regional airport’s likelihood of losing service.

Northwest questions the validity of Mitchell’s guidelines.

“The BTC also erroneously asserts that cities served by both Northwest and Delta are more likely to lose service with their proposed merger,” wrote Lee. “To be clear, any service reductions are purely a function of the high price of oil — not the merger. ”

Rochester Airport Manager Steve Leqve also disagreed with Mitchell’s conclusions. Leqve said Northwest has already released its fall schedule of flights for Rochester and there will be no reduction in service.
Northwest strongly dismissed Mitchell’s claims.

“The BTC does not have any insight into our business plans and Kevin Mitchell's assertions should be viewed as wild, unfounded speculation.” according to Lee’s statement.