Legal Turbulence: The Court's Misconstrual of the Airline Deregulation Act's Preemption Clause and the Effect on Passengers' Rights

Abstract

The date was January 2, 1999. A large snowstorm had slammed into Detroit that afternoon, stranding a number of Northwest Airlines airplanes on snow-covered taxiways and tarmacs. Many of the more than 7000 passengers returning from New Year’s vacations could not deplane. Some waited as many as eleven hours. Few of the planes contained enough food and beverages for the affected passengers, and many had overflowing toilets. The airport closed, but Northwest continued to hope the planes would depart, despite the contrary pleas of its on-site managers. Even after every other airline had shut down its operations, Northwest’s planes remained on the taxiways. When Northwest finally reversed its decision and tried to unload the passengers, it found that there were not enough accessible gates for all of the planes.