Less than two weeks after Northwest Airlines apologized for suggesting that laid off employees save money by dumpster diving, company spokesman Dean Breest was at it again, " "Northwest apologizes for the inconvenience the delay caused the passengers."
This apology was for keeping 265 passengers stuck on a Northwest airplane at the Duluth, MN airport for 10 hours
The reasons for not allowing the passengers to deplane are sketchy at best. Someone reported that Duluth didn't have a portable stair to fit the plane, but then there was video of a portable stairway ( maybe it was the wrong size).
Northwest is remaining mum on the issue. However, this is not the first time that Northwest has kept folks on a tarmac for ridiculously long periods of time. In 2001, the airlines had to pay out $7.1 million in a class action lawsuit from some of the 8,000 people who were stranded on planes for more than 8 hours during a snowstorm in Detroit.
At the time the lawsuit was announced in 2001, Northwest had this to say:
Northwest, in announcing the settlement Tuesday, did not admit that its actions during the Jan. 3, 1999, storm were inappropriate, or that the alleged claims had legal merit.
The world's fourth-largest airline said it would rather put its time and money into serving customers and improving technology than fighting a long legal battle.
Which brings us to last month when Blogher member Liza Sabeter of Culture Kitchen was on a Northwest Flight trying to get to the Blogher conference.
First off, the flight was delayed yesterday 4 hours due to weather conditions. Ok. I can live with that. But the airline, instead of taking measures to ensure people got to where they were going or stayed in NYC until further notice, they took us hostage in the airplane FOR FOUR HOURS.
Yes people.
I was with hundreds of other passengers for fours hours on a Northwest Airlines airplane. Four hours which they refused to find a way to get us out of the airplane. Four hours they refused to get people to a non NWA gate so they could be at least out of an airplane and on the ground. Four hours which they decided were necessary so they would not have to go through the extra cost of customer service.
Not only that. The flight was supposed to leave at 5:30pm. It's 9:45pm and instead of getting to a gate as instructed, the pilot decides to depart to Minneapolis.
Her story gets worse from there. For Northwest Airlines it's as if they can't do anything right. Some call it the Snowball Effect.
Meanwhile Northwest Airlines Flight attendants are awaiting a ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero who temporarily barred them from going on a "chaos" strike. No word when that ruling is expected.
One thing Northwest can expect is that snowball could get a whole lot bigger.
Image Credit: Flickr Member Sabihmir
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