Many of you have heard the horror story about the AeroMexico flight from Mexico City to Seattle that was forced to divert to Portland, Ore. The passengers reportedly were kept prisoners on that plane for 16 hours because the airport “didn’t have enough customs agents at the airport to process the flight.”
Several bloggers have claimed this is an example for the need for a passengers bill of rights.
I don’t think so. This is no normal tarmac delay. This is incompetence and bureaucratic indifference. This is a call for some common sense on the part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at Portland’s airport. Heck, don’t we citizens pay the salaries of the customs agents?
Adding insult to injury, KATU.com reported that “Several passengers got so angry that airport police boarded the plane and gave everyone an ultimatum, [one passenger] said: ‘They gave the passengers the choice to stay on the plane or be arrested.'”
That reaction by the police is disgusting and completely nonsensical. If there were “no customs agents available to process the passengers,” how could the police get any “arrested” passengers to jail? Does Portland law enforcement maintain a separate pre-passport-screening facility? I doubt it.
I would like to think that I would have opted to be arrested. At least in jail, detainees have food and water. The entire planeload should have opted for jail just call the inane police bluff.
Kama Simonds, the airport spokeswoman, uttered pathetic statements rather than attempting to solve the problem. “We understand it was very frustrating for the passengers, but we also needed to stay within rules and regulations,” she said.
Horse hockey!
There is no rule or regulation that says government workers, paid by the citizens can not be called back to work to process passengers on a distressed flight. Portland is an international airport with flights to the orient, Europe and Canada, plus a Boeing 737 is not a giant aircraft.
Let’s be real. These passengers are the airport’s and ICE’s customers. They should get service, not the shaft.
AeroMexico has apologized to their passengers. Heaven forbid that ICE executives do the same.
Postscript: Unfortunately, this is not the only time these types of customs and immigration shenanigans have taken place in the Pacifice Northwest. About five years ago a Northwest flight was diverted to a remote airport (Moses Lake in Grant County) without customs facilities (I believe). In that case the police rather than threatening to arrest the passengers, secured the terminal and allowed them to deplane for food and water. Eventually the flight took off and landed at Seattle. That took common sense — not a passenger bill of rights.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
