United Airlines Fined For 2012 Tarmac Delays
United Airlines was fined more than $1.1 million for stranding passengers on 13 planes for over three hours during a stormy day at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport last year.
United held the planes on the tarmac for more than three hours without giving them an option to leave the plane. Federal officials announced the fines on Friday.
The $1.1 million fine is the largest against an airline since 2010 when new rules took effect to ban airlines from stranding passengers over three hours on the tarmac, reports ABC News.
The delays involved 13 United and United Express flights on July 13, 2012, when severe thunderstorms and lightning caused several ramp closures and halted traffic at the United States’ second-largest airport for hours. Toilets on two of the United planes weren’t working.
The airline exceeded the three-hour limit by as much as an hour and 17 minutes, according to the US Department of Transportation. It also didn’t contact airport personnel or other airlines for help with the stranded planes, notes The Washington Post.
Mary Ryan, a spokeswoman for United Airlines, acknowledged the fines, saying, that the company is “committed to complying with the tarmac regulations and we continue to improve our procedures while maintaining the safety of our customers and co-workers.”
United must pay the government $475,000 for the tarmac delays and $185,000 of the fine will go to affected passengers, including those who were delayed for less than three hours. Another $440,000 of the fine will go toward acquiring and maintaining a surveillance system that shows the location of each plane on the airfield.
US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx spoke about the fines against United Airlines, saying, “It is unacceptable for passengers to be stranded in planes on the tarmac for hours on end. We will continue to require airlines to adopt workable plans to protect passengers from lengthy tarmac delays and carry out these plans when necessary.”
[Image via Songquan Deng / Shutterstock.com]
