WORLD> America
People held on grounded plane for 9 hours near LA
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-02 11:11

LOS ANGELES -- Nearly 200 passengers on a Taca flight from El Salvador landed Monday in Los Angeles after spending nine hours aboard a grounded airplane that had been diverted to a smaller regional airport due to heavy fog.

Passengers described hours of hunger and frustration as they waited on the tarmac at LA/Ontario International Airport amid apparent confusion between the airline and customs officials.

Eduardo Mejia, 34, of El Salvador said he and other passengers were desperate to get off the airplane, and some called the police emergency dispatcher to report cramped conditions and illnesses.

Jose Reyes, 53, also of El Salvador, said he pleaded with the flight crew to let passengers leave the plane and put them on a shuttle bus to Los Angeles. Instead, fire and airport crews gave them water and crackers. No one was hospitalized.

"They didn't listen to us. They only said, 'I'm sorry,"' he said.

El Salvador-based Taca released a statement saying local authorities did not give permission for passengers to go through customs and enter the country.

However, US Customs and Border Protection spokesman Mike Fleming said the airline did not ask for permission to let the passengers disembark.

"If they had, we would have provided a secure area to let them off the plane," Fleming said.

The Airbus A-321 aircraft, with 191 passengers, was diverted from Los Angeles International Airport late Sunday to the Ontario facility some 45 miles (72 kilometers) to the east due to heavy fog.

Including the flight time, passengers were on the plane for about 15 hours. The flight from San Salvador to Los Angeles usually takes 4 1/2 hours.

The Taca plane was one of three international passenger flights diverted to Ontario, said Nancy Castles, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles International Airport. Passengers aboard one of the airplanes, operated by AeroMexico, were bused to the airport in Los Angeles, and a third Taca plane returned to the Los Angeles airport after 2 am Monday, Castles said.

Castles said the stranded airplane may have been kept longer in Ontario because it either lacked the required equipment to land in the fog or did not have a pilot certified to fly in heavy fog conditions.

Passengers remained in Ontario until well after 8 am. It was not immediately clear why the airline did not arrange for a bus to take passengers to the airport in Los Angeles or ask customs personnel to allow the passengers to wait in the terminal.

"There were two Taca planes sitting on the tarmac. One took off and the other stayed. That's an airline decision," Castles said.

"The passengers could have been processed at Ontario, bused to LAX, or wait in the terminal. Taca chose not to do that."