It's bad enough to be stuck inside an aircraft during an indefinite delay. You might withhold your frustration when weather is the culprit. You might even attempt to understand the complexities involved with the operational mess that a delay creates. What's incomprehensible is when no one seems to take accountability.

This month, a Continental Express regional jet from Houston to Minneapolis was diverted to Rochester, Minnesota due to severe thunderstorms. It happens. Weather happens. What's not expected to happen is that a simple diversion would turn into a multi-hour ordeal for passengers who, in a twist of airline jargon, were denied exit from an idle and cramped aircraft. An investigation by the U.S. Transportation Secretary's office has since revealed that a series of miscalculations led to the ordeal. While it's popular to blame an airline (in this case, ExpressJet, operating as Continental Express) in instances like this, given the wide publicity generated by other horror stories about ground delays, the pilot had actually pleaded with dispatchers and airport personnel to allow the passengers to leave the aircraft. The only airline with staff at that time was Mesaba Airlines and their personnel told ExpressJet that passengers could not deplane because security staff had left for the day. This turned out to be incorrect as the passengers could have still remained in a secure area without the need for more screening. Even a bus was out of the question though passengers from an earlier diverted flight were sent via bus to Minneapolis. The pilot was told there were no busses left. After the terminal had reopened before dawn, the crew was told that passengers could not deplane because no jet bridge was available and it was raining. Takeoff clearance finally came by 5 in the morning but by then, the crew had exceeded their legal working hours. Finally, the passengers deplaned.

Less than 2 per cent of flights in the U.S. wind up like this one. But don't tell that to passengers who suffer from lack of food, water and basic sanitary services for hours on end. They want to know that the airline is looking after their comfort. Here we have one airline blaming another, blaming a system, blaming a series of unfortunate events. You get the picture. IAPA has worked hard with airports, airlines and service providers for dealing with such events. Now government regulation looms over the airlines' heads as the threat to impose a 3-hour limit on tarmac delays before passengers must de-plane becomes stronger. The airlines say that such regulation could lead to "unintended consequences."

Dealing with tarmac delays and how to ease passenger distress associated with them involves anticipation and planning. Airlines know the numerous reasons a flight could be delayed, which is why it surprises us when they seem ill-equipped to handle many of them. Airports know their limitations with respect to facilities and services. Pilots, before diverting to an alternate airport, should be aware of such provisions (or lack thereof). Of course safety is, and should be, the first consideration but really, haven't we seen this movie enough times? We need a different ending – a happy one.

While we work to fix the air traffic woes for the long term, all stakeholders must work together to come up with reasonable policies for handling tarmac delays – policies that should be reviewed, approved and added to a binding contract to ensure accountability. Lacking a concerted effort, government will eventually intervene and a one-size-fits-all approach may be forced on everyone when they're not paying attention – probably because they're too busy looking for someone or something to blame.