Did you see the story on this morning's TODAY SHOW on NBC about the flight from Amsterdam to Seattle that took 28 hours. The passengers were trapped on the plane in Moses Lake, Washington for 18 hours without food, water or working toliets but the airline and ground representatives would not let anyone off the plane. There were sick people on the plane but Northwest would not let them see a doctor or get off the plane.

Remember Northwest Airlines did the same thing during a snow storm in Michigan a few years ago which started all the talk of a passenger bill of rights. (Which the airlines watered down). They promised to do better next time-- SURE!

Don't these airlines ever learn? I see lawyers circling already. (The Detroit passengers all collected a sizabale settlement from Northwest a few years ago for false imprisonment).

Northwest at times seems to have lost touch with reality when it comes to handling passengers. They might as well be boxes of freight.

As ridiculous and deplorable as this is, the incident isn't quite as travdis reports. Food was eventually brought in and passengers were allowed into the terminal (such as it is in Moses Lake).

Don't get me wrong, I'd be at the head of the list trying to hold NWA's feet to the fire, but just wanted to set the record straight. The free domestic ticket they offered wouldn't be enough for me.

I never fly NWA and have no opinion about them, but a lot of what happened was not their fault. The plane was circling over Seattle (destination), waiting for fog to lift. When fuel became a problem, they went to Moses Lake to land. Passengers could not deplane, because Moses Lake doesn't have the necessary customs/immigration/security structure. After awhile on the ground, the flight crew had exceeded the maximum number of consecutive hours they are allowed to work, so they could not fly the plane out and everybody had to wait for another crew to be flown into Moses Lake. A big disaster for sure, but I think most of it was beyond NWA's control.

This is not the same flight where bullets were found in an overhead bin, right? I heard something on TV this morning running around getting ready for work.

travdis, are they any forums you haven't run to with this? Are you employed by a competitor of NWA?

Three of four flights that I took with NWA were delayed this last weekend. The third for so long that I had to come home the following day. But I am not 1/10 as unhappy with NWA as you are about something you saw on TV.

Keith

travdis; you must be a lawyer trolling for clients on this one. You've posted and been corrected for your cockeyed version of this story on all the forums. Give it up.

Here's the story, if anyone would care to read it:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/12/30....ap/index.html

Customs spokesman Mike Milne said the passengers were kept on board to ensure security and follow the law. "We're not doing it to be mean," he said.

(Sure sounds like a case of weather, regulations and some inflexible government red tape from here. Let's hope some lessons have been learned.)