The statements by Continental and Expressjet are notable for their absence of any apology to the passengers for what they went through, and also for their failure to make any reference to the following finding within the DOT Preliminary Report..
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while the crew of the ExpressJet flight did all it could to assist the passengers, more senior personnel within Continental or ExpressJet should have become involved in an effort to obtain permission to take the passengers off the plane.
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The poor bloody infantry trying desperately to get some resolution, the Chief's sleeping soundly in their luxury homes with the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door. Remarkably, both Continental and ExpressJet, in their desperation to shift the blame to Delta (who are a total disgrace, but frankly Delta was doing what Delta does routinely.. ie, treat the passengers like sh*t).... seemed to have overlooked clear criticism of the lack of effective management. The hostages (or passengers as Continental insists on calling them) deserve an apology.
Asking airlines to develop a procedure for handling such delays is not good enough, as this does not have the power of the law. An administrative failure by an airline could result in DOT fines, but this does little to resolve the problems for the hostages. It needs to be against the law for an airline to jeopardise the health and safety of their passengers by holding them hostage for a period longer than three hours. This would then provide both criminal and individual civil remedy for the passengers in the event of the kind of arrogant, couldn't care less attitude that obviously prevailed within Mesaba, Delta and the senior managers of ExpressJet and Continental.