The newest chapter in the nightmarish overnight plane delay in Rochester won't do much to quiet the clamoring for a new airline "Passenger Bill of Rights" law.

On Friday, Continental Airlines bombarded email inboxes of reporters across the nation with a statement from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood about the Twin Cities-bound Continental flight that was grounded in Rochester about two weeks ago. Passengers were basically imprisoned on the small, crowded plane for six hours. Someone calling the shots on the small plane's delay mistakenly believed passengers couldn't get off the plane for security reasons.

That someone apparently worked for Mesaba Airlines, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's preliminary investigation. Transcripts released Friday revealed that the ExpressJet pilot (ExpressJet operated the flight for Continental) tried unsuccessfully throughout the night to deplane.

The transportation report said that the Mesaba representative "improperly refused the requests of the ExpressJet captain, telling the captain the airport was closed for security reasons.''The reality, according to Rochester airport manager Steve Leqve, was that the passengers could have gone into part of the airport, where there were vending machines and clean restrooms, and stayed there without having to go through screening.

In a statement, Mesaba CEO John Spanjers disputed the findings, saying it was "incongruent" with Mesaba's own findings.

Continental's PR machine was quick to point out that Mesaba is a subsidiary of Northwest Airlines, which is now a subsidiary of Continental rival Delta Airlines. But the Houston-based carrier did not get off scot free. LaHood also pointed out that Continental senior officals, as well as those for ExpressJet, should have been more involved in helping these passengers, a point made in a previous Star Tribune editorial. It's not hard to imagine that at the root of the problem was an employee too timid to call supervisors for help late at night, when the Continental flight was grounded.

A total of three airlines stumbled so badly in caring for these passengers. This comes after a decade in which nearly every major airline has fumbled the same situation. The Passenger Bill of Rights, if passed , would provide some protections to passengers on delayed planes. The industry shouldn't need a federal law to mandate common sense. Unfortunately, it's left passengers and politicians with few other options.