Tarmac

Hillary Rodham Clinton may have lost to Barack Obama in the race for Iowa, but she exacted her revenge in the race out of Iowa. In the wee hours of Friday morning, Clinton's police-escorted motorcade, zipping along the dark roads between downtown Des Moines and the airport, arrived mere seconds before Obama's police-escorted motorcade at the Signature Aviation terminal.

The phone call from my editor came at 9:15 p.m. one night. "Can you catch a 9:30 plane to Phoenix?" I live about 5 miles from John Wayne Airport, and if I pushed the speed limit, I could possibly get there before the plane left, I replied. Why? No time to discuss the assignment now, the editor said: "We already made a reservation for you. Get on the plane and call us from Phoenix."

Re "A Giant El Toro Park, the Will of the People," Orange County Commentary, May 6: Is Larry Agran crazy? Does he think Orange County voters will encumber themselves once they find out how much it will cost for them to finance the hundreds of millions of dollars--tearing up a fine airfield and building a park from scratch--for a facility to be used mainly for the city of Irvine? Absolutely not, especially when they can have a much-needed airport that will make money, create fine jobs and relieve us from drowning in our need for more air carrier space.

While walking to a bus stop near his home, 19-year-old Craig Brown Jr. found himself suddenly hemmed in by four neighborhood thugs. He barely hesitated before handing over his jacket and boots. A construction-trade apprentice enrolled in a job center downtown, the slim teen was so shaken by the encounter on Thurston Road in October 2002 that he started catching the bus at a busier intersection half a mile away.

The number of flights delayed on U.S. airport tarmacs for more than three hours dropped to zero in October, the Department of Transportation reported Tuesday. The achievement marks the first time U.S.-based airlines reported no such lengthy interruptions since the agency began tracking them in 2008. The agency reported 11 delays lasting longer than three hours in October 2009. Passenger-rights advocates attribute the result to penalties adopted last year by the Transportation Department.

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued its first violation of the three-hour tarmac rule and fined American Eagle Airlines $900,000, according to a DOT statement. The airline, American Airlines' regional carrier, was singled out for keeping passengers on airplanes on 15 flights arriving at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on May 29. DOT says 608 passengers were affected by delays of up to 3 hours and 45 minutes. The tarmac delay rule, as it is nicknamed, which went into effect April 2010, says airlines with 30 or more passengers on domestic flights can't remain on the runway longer than three hours without facing fines of up to $27,000 per passenger.

Stepping down as Haiti's "president for life," Jean-Claude Duvalier handed power to a military-led government council Friday and fled to France, setting off scenes of rejoicing and later of looting in the capital of Port-au-Prince. Duvalier, 34, said he quit after nearly 15 years to end "a nightmare of blood" brought on by a wave of mass protests against his authoritarian rule.

The Times' Dec. 22 editorial on the federal government's rule requiring airliners that sit on the tarmac for more than three hours to disembark passengers was surprisingly astute -- surprising because the sensible observations and conclusions that The Times expressed have been so rarely understood or articulated in this emotion-charged debate. Ever since a very few but very public events -- in December 2006, February 2007 and then one flight this past summer in Rochester, Minn. -- many have made "fixing" this problem a cause celebre.

Starting late this month, airlines that leave passengers stranded on a tarmac in a delayed plane for three hours or more can face a hefty fine under new rules adopted by the U.S. Department of Transportation. If carriers don't let passengers out of the plane before the three-hour mark, the agency can fine them up to $27,500 per customer. At least three domestic airlines have announced plans to avoid the penalties. But that won't necessarily cut down on delays. US Airways and Continental Airlines have both unveiled procedures to return the plane to the gate if it can't take off before the three-hour limit.

Question: I was on a flight with Delta that was delayed one hour because of mechanical problems. That was followed by three hours of waiting on the tarmac. Delta sent me 1,000 miles as a courtesy. When I complained, the airline also sent me a $125 travel voucher. Is what they are doing correct, or am I supposed to get something more? Are there federal rules and regulations for this kind of situation? Barbara Fallick, Santa Monica Answer: The rules on what airlines are required to do changed this year, under the Department of Transportation's Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections statute.