In the wake of the organisational disaster at JetBlue, today's New York Times
reports that "There is growing sentiment in Congress to pass legislation
that would mandate limits on the time passengers can be kept in a plane on
the ground and also set compensation standards for stranded passengers."
I hope that you'll support such legislation.

Although JetBlue is the most recent and most glaring example, this phenomenon
of passengers' being stranded on airplanes interminably is a growing one
at all airlines, because these airlines have less and less of a competitive
incentive to avoid such inconveniences.  On 8 November 2001, for instance,
I was stranded for several hours on a diverted American Airlines flight
because staff were unwilling to allow us passengers simply to walk down
the stairs that had been rolled up to the plane.  American offered me no
compensation at all for this incident.

In many instances, the difficulty seems to be that airlines or airports
are simply unwilling to allow passengers to disembark by walking across
the tarmac rather than by walking through an enclosed gate.  A financial
cost associated with holding passengers on airplanes may make airlines more
willing to handle such contingencies promptly.