Tarmac ordeal renews push for fliers' rights

— -- The situation on board was horrendous: Babies were screaming, odor from a toilet filled the cramped plane and passengers couldn't escape.

That's how passenger Link Christin describes being stuck overnight Friday on Continental Express Flight 2816 on the airport tarmac in Rochester, Minn.

Christin and 48 other passengers and two babies spent the night aboard the 50-seat jet they were on after their scheduled flight from Houston to Minneapolis-St. Paul was diverted because of weather.

"You're numb throughout the experience, and you almost don't know what's happening to you," says Christin, 52, a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul.

What Christin and his fellow passengers endured is the latest horror story from the nation's airport tarmacs, where 278 flights were delayed three hours or more in June, according to the latest Department of Transportation statistics.

It's prompted an apology from Continental and Houston-based ExpressJet Airlines, which operated the flight. It has spurred anger from the manager of the Rochester airport, who blames the airline for the ordeal. And it has renewed calls from consumer advocates for Congress to prevent airline passengers from being held captive for hours on tarmacs.

"It's further proof the airlines don't have the desire or the will in altering their behavior related to these strandings," says Kate Hanni of FlyersRights.org, which has been lobbying Congress since January 2007 to free airline passengers from being held on delayed planes for hours.

The flight took off Friday night before being diverted to Rochester because of thunderstorms in the Twin Cities. The jet landed in Rochester at 12:28 a.m. Saturday.

Passengers spent about 5½ hours inside the plane before being allowed to get off and wait inside the airport, ExpressJet spokeswoman Kristy Nicholas says.

"Due to the time of night, the ground handler did not have the resources to allow the customers to deplane safely," she says.