Passengers aboard an already-delayed American Airlines flight were stuck for nearly 3 hours at Harrisburg International Airport, until after 3 a.m., because of an airport equipment malfunction and an apparent insufficient airline staff to help the passengers off the flight another way.

The jetway was not working, and they said there were no stairs and the pilot wasn't able to arrange for a tug to pull the plane to another gate.

American Airlines flight 1549 from Dallas-Fort Worth 

Passengers finally got off the plane through a rear stairway and walked to the terminal.

That two-and-a-half-hour wait between landing and deplaning would enable the airline to narrowly avoid potentially millions of dollars in fines under what’s sometimes known as the “tarmac delay rule.” Under the rule, airlines face fines of up to $27,500 per passenger for a wait on the ground, aboard an aircraft, of more than three hours.

Airlines at Harrisburg, except American, use contracted “ground handlers,” as the companies are known, to perform tasks such as operating the jetbridges and — in a case like this — bringing stairs and managing the unusual arrival. But American — with more flights than any other airline at the airport plus its own subsidiary, Piedmont Airlines, with a maintenance and crew base at the airport — uses its own Piedmont workers to perform those jobs.

Based on several accounts, no such worker was at the airport when the flight initially landed, with the specific knowledge and training to operate the stairs.

https://www.abc27.com/local-news/passengers-stuck-at-gate-aboard-flight-from-dallas-for-hours-will-airline-face-tarmac-delay-fine/amp/

I suppose the FAA and US Marschalls would lose their fuzzy little minds if someone simply made the call and used the emergency inflatable ramp and get the passengers off the damn plane in a nice bit of "training" in emergency plane evacuation equipment