Kerre Woodham: Foggy logic of airlines leaves travellers mystified

The thought of being trapped on the tarmac on a plane for seven hours makes me go all clammy. I remember flying out of Rome back in 2000 and discovering on our arrival at Heathrow that we had been the last plane out of there before air traffic controllers all over Europe went out on strike, leaving people stranded in their aircraft for hours. There were reports of people fainting and going mad, and I've tortured myself for years with all the what-if scenarios - what if it had been our plane? What if we'd booked on a later flight?

It may seem indulgent for someone so short to be claustrophobic, but what can I say? I was born in New Zealand - I like my wide open spaces. So to hear about the poor souls who found themselves trapped on the ground at Ohakea for hours on end when both Auckland and Christchurch airports were closed with fog last week was to relive my nightmare all over again.

If armed terrorists had kept people captive on a plane for that length of time, they would be universally condemned. Yet Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways were utterly unapologetic and unrepentant. Nothing they could do, they said. Customs rules and regulations meant their hands were tied, and besides, said Air New Zealand, they'd received no complaints. Probably because their poor passengers are still in shock from the experience. Just wait till they get their strength back. If Plan B is to land at Ohakea and keep people locked in the planes until the fog lifts, surely there needs to be a Plan C.

Obviously, people don't want to get off at Ohakea, so there's no need for Customs and Immigration to process them, but surely the poor buggers could have been let out, one plane at a time, to walk around, stretch their poor, cramped, DVT-susceptible legs, have a whiz in a nice clean Portaloo that could have been provided and then be escorted back to the plane to allow the next lot out.

There are 330 people per jumbo - surely the staff at Ohakea could have managed that. Besides, where were they going to go? They were in the middle of a paddock in the middle of Manawatu. The nearest city is Palmerston North. Hardly an attractive proposition for anyone who might have been thinking about jumping ship.

I know this sort of thing happens in other countries - people had horror stories to tell me about LA. But why can't we show a bit of initiative? We've got the World Cup coming up, and our two main airports are prone to being fogged in. To fly for 30 hours to get to a country, only to be kept cooped up for seven hours on the tarmac in the middle of nowhere, is not the sort of welcome our tourists expect.

I find it hard to believe that there is no alternative to keeping people locked in their aircraft.

Other options might be more expensive, but surely that's better than exposing your long-suffering customers to such cruel and unusual punishment.