Jun Concillado, United Workers Movement vice president, said Continental-Cape Air “deprived me of my right to live comfortably.”
He said he arrived at the Guam airport on Feb. 3 at 4:50 a.m. with a parole and advance parole issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Concillado said he also has a BI/B2 visa.
He said he was supposed to fly from Guam to Saipan at 7 a.m. but Continental-Cape Air moved his flight to Feb. 4 at 2:15 a.m.
The airline management, he said, advised passengers that the plane was having a mechanical problem again. It experienced the same problem on Jan. 29.
All the passengers, except him, were allowed to leave the airport and were given free hotel accommodations, Concillado said.
Despite his valid documents, he said he was not allowed to go outside the airport and stay at the hotel.
“I was so disgusted and humiliated,” he said. “Imagine more than 20 hours of being stranded at an airport. I couldn’t sleep because there was no bed, the place was noisy and there was no shower. Every time I went to the restroom I had to carry my bag because I was all alone.”
Concillado said he was not able to take his “maintenance medicine” for his ailment for two days and two nights because the medicines were in his checked-in baggage.
He did not disclose what the medicines were for.
When he finally arrived here on Feb. 4 at 3 a.m., he said he was not able to get his baggage because the airline company did not load it until Feb. 5 at 9:30 a.m.
Concillado said Continental failed to inform him about the mechanical problem of Cape Air prior to his scheduled flight. He said he could have booked a flight with Freedom Air.
“And why didn’t Continental Airlines help me convince the immigration officers so I could be allowed to go out and stay at a hotel?” he asked.
“Is it normal to let certain passengers to suffer at the airport just because of an airline company’s grave negligence?”
He added, “I just want to emphasize that this case is beyond the control of the passengers so why let them suffer?”
He said the advance parole provided to CNMI guest workers is a “humanitarian act” of the U.S. to allow them entry to the commonwealth through Guam “as long as the bearer is in direct and continuous travel through Guam to or from a foreign port.”
But, he added, “does this mean that if the aircraft will have a mechanical problem, passengers should just remain at the airport until the next available flight even if it involves waiting for almost a day? Is the humanitarian reason inapplicable to such cases?”
He is asking U.S. immigration authorities office to inform CNMI guest workers what other documents aside from parole and advance parole are required so they can be allowed to leave the Guam airport in case another plane bound for the commonwealth has a mechanical problem.
He said he may file complaint against Continental.
Continental spokeswoman Mary Torre on Thursday said they were still supplementing the Guam to Saipan flights for Continental Connection partner Cape Air due to maintenance issues with its ATR-42 aircraft.
