AA is Sued Over 2 Diverted Flights

By Trebor Banstetter, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Jan. 1–Two American Airlines passengers who were stranded on diverted airplanes for more than eight hours a year ago have sued the airline, alleging false imprisonment, fraud and negligence.

Kate Hanni’s and Catherine Ray’s flights were diverted from Dallas/Fort Worth Airport to Austin on Dec. 29, 2006, amid stormy weather over North Texas. After landing, passengers sat in the planes for hours and weren’t allowed to leave despite overflowing toilets and little food or water.

The flights were among hundreds diverted that day when an unusual system of storms snarled traffic over American’s largest hub airport. Hanni was inspired to create a passenger-rights group and has lobbied Congress to pass an “airline passenger’s bill of rights” that would guarantee minimum service levels for air travelers. No bill has yet been passed.

Hanni sued in California; Ray, of Fayetteville, Ark., sued in Arkansas. Both suits, filed in circuit courts, seek class-action status and claim that American’s decisions affected 12,000 passengers that day. “The toilets became full and would not flush, and the stench of human excrement and body odor filled the plane,” Ray’s suit says.

It says passengers were deprived of medication and “suffered hunger, thirst, anxiety, physical illness, emotional distress and monetary loss.”

American officials said they haven’t seen the suits and could not comment. But spokesman John Hotard said the airline has worked to improve its system for dealing with severe weather.

American has installed new software for tracking diverted flights and now allows passengers to leave planes after four hours if safety allows.

“A major weather event that no one predicted” happened Dec. 29, and 119 flights that were diverted that day, the most since 9-11, Hotard said.

The lawsuits seek unspecified damages as well as legal expenses.

Passengers who were stranded have sued before. In 1999, a class-action suit against Northwest Airlines covered more than 7,000 passengers who were stuck for up to 11 hours during a snowstorm in Detroit. The airline eventually settled out of court for $7 million.

Shares of AMR Corp., American’s parent (ticker: AMR), closed at $14.03 per share Monday, unchanged.

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