49 U.S.C. § 42301 — Emergency contingency plans

(a) Submission of Air Carrier and Airport Plans. Within 90 days after this section became law, three groups must submit an emergency contingency plan to the Secretary of Transportation for review and approval: (1) an airline providing covered air transportation at a commercial airport; (2) the operator of a commercial airport; and (3) the operator of any airport that airline uses for diverted flights. (b) Air Carrier Plans. (1) Plans for individual airports -- an airline must submit a plan for every airport where it provides covered air transportation, and every airport where it's primarily responsible for controlling flight inventory. (2) Contents -- the plan must describe how the airline will (A) provide enough food, water, bathrooms, comfortable cabin temperature, and medical access for passengers stuck on a delayed or slow-to-deplane aircraft; (B) share facilities and make gates available during an emergency; and (C) let passengers get off the plane after an excessive tarmac delay, following paragraph (3). (3) Deplaning following an excessive tarmac delay -- the plan must guarantee: (A) passengers can choose to get off the plane and return to the terminal during an excessive tarmac delay; (B) this choice applies even if the flight was diverted to a different commercial airport than planned; (C) the airline must start returning the plane to a place where passengers can get off -- within 3 hours of the door closing for a domestic flight, or 4 hours for an international flight; but (D) passengers don't get this choice if an air traffic controller says deplaning would seriously disrupt airport operations, or the pilot decides it would endanger passenger safety or security. (c) Airport Plans. An airport's plan must describe how the airport, as much as practical, will (1) help deplane passengers after excessive tarmac delays; (2) share facilities and free up gates during emergencies; and (3) provide a secure area after such delays for passengers who haven't yet cleared U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (d) Updates. (1) Airlines must update and resubmit their plans for approval every 3 years. (2) Airports must update and resubmit their plans for approval every 5 years. (e) Approval. (1) Within 60 days of receiving a plan or update, the Secretary must review it, approve it, or require changes to make sure it will handle emergencies and protect passenger health and safety. (2) If the Secretary misses that 60-day deadline, the plan or update counts as automatically approved. (3) Airlines and airports must actually follow their approved plans. (f) Minimum Standards. The Secretary must set minimum standards, as needed, for what these plans must include. (g) Public Access. Airlines and airports must make their approved plans available to the public -- on their own website or by another method the Secretary decides. (h) Reports. Within 30 days after any flight has an excessive tarmac delay, the responsible airline must send a written report describing the incident and how it was resolved to the Aviation Consumer Protection Division of the Department of Transportation. (i) Definitions. (1) "Commercial airport" means a large, medium, small, or nonhub airport. (2) "Covered air transportation" means scheduled or public charter passenger flights on aircraft designed to seat 30 or more passengers. (3) "Tarmac delay" means the time passengers spend on an aircraft on the tarmac either waiting to take off after the doors closed (or after boarding, if not told they could get off), or waiting to deplane after landing. (4) "Excessive tarmac delay" means a tarmac delay of more than 3 hours for domestic flights, or 4 hours for foreign flights.