The senate is expected to vote today on legislation that would force airlines to let passengers off their planes – if they’ve been waiting three hours for take off.

Such “trapped on the tarmac” episodes typically take place when airlines are waiting out terrible snowstorms or other obnoxious weather.

The airlines however, are opposed to the legislation: they want the flexibility of being able to take off the moment, say, a break in the weather appears – and if they have to wait to round up all the passengers and get them back onboard, that “break” can disappear.

Hmmm. As one who’s spent his fair share of time sitting on an idling airplane, I can see both sides – and in fairness to the airlines, they’ve done a much, much better job in recent years of getting people off planes – without any legislation.

That said, its seems to me their change of heart wouldn’t have happened without some horrendous publicity about people trapped on tarmacs for hours without food or water.

Readers – please sound off on this.