I just received an email from Senator Barbara Boxer’s office, describing the new passengers’ rights legislation she has co-sponsored:

The legislation requires airlines to offer passengers the option of safely leaving a plane they have boarded once that plane has sat on the ground three hours after the plane door has closed unless the pilot determines that doing so would endanger their safety or security. This option would be provided every three hours that the plane continues to sit on the ground. The legislation also requires airlines to provide passengers with necessary services such as food, potable water and adequate restroom facilities while a plane is delayed on the ground.

I don’t travel often, and when I do it’s within California and I drive. I’m not afraid of flying; I just haven’t needed to go anywhere in a plane, in many years. Just the cards I’ve been dealt. However, I think it would make me very angry to get stuck in an airplane that wasn’t going anywhere. So I think the legislation needs to go even farther than it does.

I don’t think a plane should be boarded unless it’s leaving. It shouldn’t push back from the gate unless there’s a runway for it to take off on. And it shouldn’t taxi unless the pilot and the controller agree that all reasonably foreseeable conditions exist for it to safely take off.

An analogy might be made to the police: They shouldn’t draw their service weapon unless they’re prepared to fire it, because it’s necessary to kill somebody. I remember when cops generally did not pull guns on people to intimidate or threaten them. It’s not a joke, and neither is getting sealed into a giant aluminum tube.