Passengers Complain of 9-Hour Plane Ordeal
D E T R O I T, Dec. 14 -- Northwest Airlines had said it would never happenagain: more than 6,000 passengers trapped in planes at the Detroitairport for more than eight hours during a 1999 snowstorm.
But during Detroit’s worst winter storm since, 139 passengersbound for Miami say they were stuck in one plane and then anotherfor about seven hours during mechanical and weather delays Monday.The entire ordeal, including two breaks in the terminal, lastedjust over nine hours.
A few frustrated passengers with cell phones called 911,demanding someone get them off the plane, passengers said.
‘They Held Us Hostage’
“They held us hostage,” said Patty Mackay, 42, of Milwaukee.“They kept lying to us, saying to us we were going to leave. Andwe never did leave.”
Northwest officials, still stinging from the first fiasco, saidthe incident was isolated, and they quickly tried to compensate thepassengers with flight vouchers and cash.
“The general reaction was very positive,” Northwest spokesmanJon Austin said Wednesday. “People understood the weather. Theyunderstood there was a lot of effort there, but not everyone wasdelighted to go through it.”
Problems at Detroit set off alarms for Northwest, which hasworked to rehabilitate its reputation since the 1999 snowstorm,when more than a dozen planes were left stranded on runways — somewith overflowing toilets and no food — because plows couldn’t clearthe airfield. Northwest policy now says passengers must not bestuck on grounded planes for more than three hours; that policy wasnot violated this time, the airline said.
Conspiracy of Events
Monday’s ordeal was caused by a combination of problems, Austinsaid.
Passengers were aboard Flight 997 and ready to leave at 10:25a.m. when a windshield defogger problem stalled the plane at thegate.
The passengers stayed in their seats until Northwest switchedthem to a different plane, which backed away from the gate about 1p.m., but generator troubles held them up again.
Trending Reader Picks
ABC News Live