In response to airline passengers being trapped on airport tarmacs for hours, a “federal Transportation Department task force was formed in reaction to complaints from passengers forced to wait in planes for up to 10 hours at a time when the absence of basic amenities such as food, water and clean rest rooms made on-board waits intolerable.”

The federal task force responded with voluntary regulation: Here are some loose government recommendations, you don’t have to do these, but it would be nice if you do. Obviously, this task force turned out to be a complete failure and useless. From the WatertownDailyTimes.com:

As an alternative to laws and regulations, the Bush administration created the tarmac task force with the idea of developing guidelines for airlines and airports to address passenger needs during lengthy delays.

With its work completed, the final report clearly favors the industry with loosely written guidelines that are purely voluntary in nature and place no requirements on airlines or airports to do anything.

The report said that airlines should “make every reasonable effort” to keep airplane rest rooms usable, but what constitutes reasonable effort is open to debate. Similarly, the task force said refreshments and entertainment should be provided when practical, which is left open to interpretation.

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