Crunch time is approaching on the carry-on luggage issue. Two major airlines, Northwest and United, are sidling toward tighter restrictions on what passengers can take aboard as other airlines watch attentively. And a recent safety conference in Washington, D.C., about injuries caused by objects flying out of overhead bins produced some alarming information.
Baggage is a pressing matter in cabin safety at the moment, said Jim Burnett, the outspoken former head of the National Transportation Safety Board. “The planes are flying full, and the racks are overloaded,” he said in an interview from Clinton, Ark., where he now practices law and consults on air safety. “Some proposals are being made on the basis of the size of objects. Size is not relevant. Nothing of weight should be stored overhead. The bins should be for hats and coats and light packages.”
Burnett said that in nearly 10 years of work on the board’s investigations, he had been struck by falling baggage a number of times. He regularly uses an aisle seat, the most vulnerable position.
The Association of Flight Attendants, an AFL-CIO union representing employees on 27 carriers, estimates that 4,000 passengers were injured last year by falling objects. The union was a sponsor of last month’s safety conference “Carry-on Bags: An Everyday Risk,” which heard from officials of the Federal Aviation Administration and other groups as well as from people injured by falling objects. FAA rules require that each airline establish programs for safe stowage of luggage before takeoff.
Precise numbers on how many people have been struck and how seriously are matters that the airlines are not compelled to report, so the figures are largely private except in court when passengers sue.
In a continuing lawsuit concerning a 1995 injury, it was reported that United Airlines tabulated 462 incidents involving overhead bins in its B-757’s from Oct. 1, 1992, to Sept. 30, 1995. These figures were reported Aug. 18 in Air Safety Week, a publication of Phillips Business Information in Potomac, Md. According to other testimony, based on examination of United’s records, 99 percent of the 462 incidents involved articles that fell out and struck passengers or crew.
The Air Transport Association, which represents 22 United States airlines, reported to the conference that the most common source of injury was briefcases. Michael J. Polay, a professor from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., reported that data from one unidentified airline showed 247 of 430 incidents involved briefcases.
USAir, now USAirways, settled 1,000 claims involving falling objects in a three-year period, according to data obtained from the airline by USA Today. Although a USAirways spokesman, Richard Weintraub, says the correct figure for resolved claims is 100 a year, Russell D. Robison, an air safety consultant in Erie, Pa., insists that the USA Today figure is reliable. Robison, extrapolating from the United and USAirways figures, came up with an annual figure of 4,630 claims settled by the 14 largest passenger carriers.
Robison was once an official of Erie Aviation, which was the United States distributor for a netted luggage-rack visor built by Bridport in Britain that is put inside the bin doors to keep articles from falling out when the doors open. It is used by British Airways. Robison now pursues his concerns independently as the principal of Robison & Associates. Among his projects is a toll-free number (888-427-6385) to collect information on cabin safety, particularly injuries from falling objects.
The impulse to carry luggage aboard arises in part from anxiety about misdirected bags. The number of “mishandled baggage” reports filed with the major domestic airlines last year was put by the Department of Transportation at 2.46 million for 463.9 million passengers, a rate of 5.3 for each thousand passengers. Probably 97 percent are retrieved within three days, the Air Transport Association says.
A student of Polay’s did research several years ago into who was responsible for what passengers carried aboard. Customer service representatives at the gate and flight attendants of a major airline whose name was not disclosed were surveyed. The ground representatives said it was the flight attendants’ duty; the flight attendants said it was up to the gate agents.
The flight attendants’ position was explained by Ronda Ruderman, head of the aircraft technical committee of the flight attendants union. “Travelers know that confrontation with an airline gate agent or crew member will not promote an airline’s desired image of accommodating passengers,” she said at the conference in Washington. “They know that by balking . . . they may in fact end up being rewarded with an upgrade or some other amenity.”
Flight attendants, Ruderman pointed out, can be held liable for a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for violation of federal airline regulations — for example, letting passengers carry on more than two bags. Complaint letters from passengers can result in disciplinary action. And the airline, she said, may not back up the employee because of fears of offending passengers.
Christopher Witkowski, director of air safety and health for the union, said that it all boiled down to a rule of the jungle: “If it fits, it’s OK.” What is needed, he told the conference, is a single enforceable carry-on baggage rule that applies across the board and is easily understood.
Andy Buttafucco of Valley Stream, N.Y., the director of flight safety for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said in an interview that airlines were reluctant to offend passengers by forbidding heavy objects in the overhead or forcing them to leave their bags for checking.
Still, three major airlines have taken tiny steps. On Nov. 12, American Airlines, its flight attendants’ union (not the same one that held the conference) and its pilots union asked the FAA to set carry-on baggage policies for all the airlines.
A draft of a guidance sheet has been put out for public comment by the agency, but it does not offer any new enforcement rules.
Northwest, on Nov. 21, expanded its “one plus” baggage rule to all its flights. Now all passengers are limited to one carry-on bag, plus a briefcase, laptop computer or purse. Certain other items, coats, umbrellas, cane, crutches, braces, collapsible manual wheelchairs, strollers, infant seats and diaper bags are also exempted. But First Class, World Business Class, Gold Elite frequent-flier members and World Perks Gold members are allowed extra carry-on items. When the policy was begun, last summer, it applied only to flights that were 70 percent full, or more.
United’s program, begun Dec. 1, is more bluntly focused on the fare paid. Its Take-Off Fares pilot program applies only to flights originating in Des Moines. Passengers who buy the lowest advance-purchase ticket available for Des Moines flights must decide to buy the quoted fare on the spot, must use an electronic (or paperless) ticket and may carry aboard only one bag, although they may check two. Again, Premier members of the frequent-flier program who take the cheapest fare may carry on more than one bag.
