Court Shoots an Airball

A federal court says New York State can't enact a law protecting airline passengers who get stuck for hours in planes on the ground. If you've ever been in this situation, you know the nightmare. Your plane pulls away from the gate, taxis a short distance, then sits. And sits. And sits. In recent memory, hundreds of JetBlue Airways passengers experienced just such a scenario. They were without water, food, fresh air, and working toilets for up to 10 hours.

The New York law sought to remedy this by mandating these basics for passengers stuck on grounded planes for more than three hours. Silly state! The feds say that's their job. The appellate court ruled that if New York could get away with this law, other states could prohibit selling soda or require certain types of food be served.

Okay, that may be logical. But then, where have the feds been on this all too frequent occurrence? The answer is, nowhere. Fact is, New York acted because Washington hasn't. You know what they do. Spot a problem, form a task force, or stick a passenger bill of rights in a budget authorization bill that gets bottled up for the better part of a year.

A court can't force the Congress to pass a law mandating basic amenities for air passengers stuck on the ground through no fault of their own. The responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of our elected officials.

After all, doesn't federal law make us fasten our seat belts during takeoff and landing?