Seeking Class Action
Kathleen Hanni and Catherine Ray want to obtain class-action status for their lawsuit. If granted, the suit would cover thousands of passengers stranded on American planes at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport during a severe thunderstorm in December 2006.

“We’re looking for justice for the passengers,” said Hanni, who founded Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights after her experience.

The Complaints
According to the women’s complaints, the airline would not allow passengers to deplane and failed to provide them with adequate food and water—only one bag of pretzels and one cup of water for the entire nine-hour delay.

The complaints also state that the toilets were not emptied and consequently overflowed. The women claim that passengers suffered emotional distress, thirst, hunger and financial losses as a result of the delay.

Preventing Recurrences
American has since implemented new measures in an attempt to prevent such occurrences, a company spokesman said.

Congress has also passed legislation that would require airlines to provide passengers with essentials during delays, and New York just passed a law that would punish airlines for holding passengers without providing them food and water.

In 2001, a similar lawsuit against Northwest Airlines was settled for $7.1 million. Plaintiffs in that case had been stranded on planes in Detroit for up to eight hours because of a snowstorm.

(Source: USA Today)