Pisses me OFF! Been stuck on a plane for 3 hours and that was hell.

Wow, did they not learn from JetBlue when they did this a few years back?

I've never even flown JetBlue and somehow I ended up getting an apology email! Way to be, Continental!

I like to spam...

Wow, that must suck. I've flown often... a lot actually. And a lot of it inter-continental.

In those cases you're stuck on a plane that's designed to hold 300+ people for 11 - 13 hours. And even then it's not the most fun in the world. I can only imagine what it must have been like with a plane that's supposed to hold you for 2-4 hours.

We were joking about this situation last time we flew (and it was on one of those particular planes, too), and I told my husband I pitied the person who tried to keep me and my kid on a grounded plane for 12 hours. He said "What can you do, though? If they say you can't get off the plane, they aren't going to open the doors, so what options does it leave?"

"Yell 'FIRE!'"

And you'll have the emergency exits.

Seriously, why would the passengers need security checks to *leave* the plane? Was the airline afraid some passengers were going to hijack their hotel and fly it into another building?

I think if you insist long, hard and loud enough you'd eventually have to be let off before more punters on board start to also become vocal problems; after all, if you start becoming a problem, the eventual threat is you'd be removed from the airplane, no? Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. These passengers were unassertive and docile.

Guess you and I would be getting off the plane and enjoying some Mojito's in the airport bar!! :D

I've had this experience twice now but not for such a great length of time.

In 1980 I was on an empty plane on the runway in Rome for three hours in the blazing heat because the air traffic controllers went on strike and last year I was on a full aircraft, once again in the blazing heat, when the plane was diverted to Abu Dhabi as we had to wait out the clearance of fog in Kuwait for four hours!

I'm a girl who is allergic to bleached cottons and latex. I'll simply stand up and say that unless they want a bloody mess on their hands, they WILL be letting me off the plane.

I would have said something about needing my medicine and then went into convulsions.


(and no, I don't need medicine and I don't have convulsions, but I can act)

OR getting to know the local law enforcement. But regardless you would be off the plane.

Yes... but then you'd be forced to deal with the inevitable incarceration, legal bills, etc.

Don't get me wrong... just hearing about this last nite made me claustrophobic... but the thought of sitting in a tiny cell til they decided to let me out would probably have been worse.

For the sake of the passengers and crew... I hope the cocktails were free. :)

You're forgetting who the victim is here.

You've been imprisoned on an airplane with nothing but platitudes and veiled threats to to keep you trapped.
You are entitled to your freedom as a basic human right.
No official, airport, civil or federal, in a civilised country when presented with this situation in a reasonable manner can in good conscience prevent a tired and rational fare paying passenger saying "thanks but I've had enough of this and I'd like to get a taxi to a nearby hotel at my own expense to rest and get a flight tomorrow." ...Of course in certain states you may want to avoid eye contact or any sudden movements...