Napan sues airline over delays, discomfort

Home » News » Local

Hanni, who spearheaded passengers' rights bill, heads to court

Monday, December 31, 2007

Comment

By DAVID RYAN
Register Staff Writer

3:00 p.m.Kate Hanni made headlines in 2007 for trying to get Congress to pass an airline passenger’s bill of rights.

Now, the Napa resident is taking her crusade to court.

In a class action lawsuit filed late Friday in Napa County Superior Court, Hanni sued American Airlines, charging that the nine hours she spent stranded inside an American Airlines plane on the tarmac of an airport in Texas in December 2006 amounted to false imprisonment. She also accuses the airline of negligence and breach of contract.

Airline officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

In Congressional testimony and past interviews, Hanni said American Airlines flights that day trapped passengers in aircraft with overflowing toilets and no food or water for hours, even for small children.

“Approximately 12,000 passengers involving about 100 flights on Dec. 29, 2006, were confined to aircraft diverted from Dallas by defendant to other airports and confined for three to 12 hours on the aircraft in poor or deplorable conditions by defendant,” the lawsuit reads.

Hanni maintains in court papers that American Airlines “should have known that passengers needed to be supplied with essential means of comfort and survival on board aircraft, but failed and refused to do so.”

She is seeking unspecified damages.

In the last year, Hanni founded www.flyersrights.com, collecting 21,000 signatures from supporters for her bill of rights. Congress did not enact the measure.

8 comment(s)

momtoo wrote on Dec 31, 2007 2:10 PM:

" good for her. I hope she wins. I would NEVER want to be stuck on an airplane that long. I got stuck on the tarmac in Chicago for 3 hours many many years ago and it was terrible! "

napadad wrote on Dec 31, 2007 2:55 PM:

" So now I can sue the people who get in accidents on the freeway because they waste my time and lose me money because I sit in gridlock on the freeway. Maybe false imprisonment too? I can also sue the driver that hit the utility pole on my road and caused the electricity to go out for twelve hours, cutting me out of 12 hours of work. There are dangers and drawbacks to technology and travel in all aspects of this world. If you don't want to take the chance, don't engage yourself. Take a train and then you can sue for train delays. I don't like the trends I see. "

Kate Hanni wrote on Dec 31, 2007 6:17 PM:

" So, napadad, were you trapped with both of your children for 13 hours and 17 minutes without access to a hygienic toilet, potable water or food and no hope of getting off of the plane since the airlines can hold you indefinitely...would you think that was right? "

mytwocents wrote on Dec 31, 2007 6:23 PM:

" Did someone tell her she could not remove herself from the plane? It seems it would not be too difficult to walk away, book another flight, whatever. "

supernova8610 wrote on Dec 31, 2007 6:30 PM:

" Good for her! When I was flying home from London 2 1/2 years ago, I was stuck on the plane for two hours, and even that was bad. "

Dwayne wrote on Dec 31, 2007 8:52 PM:

" The lawsuit is to institute a change in airline policy, not for money. In an aircraft you are being held against your will by the airline, but when you're stuck in traffic no single entity is responsible. Damages on the freeway are circumstantial, and in an airplane damages are direct by the people holding you there. "

valleygal wrote on Dec 31, 2007 9:40 PM:

" I am with you, napadad. Seems everyone expects absolute perfection all of the time, or you are sued. How sad.
Anyone ever heard of patience? Sometimes we need to use a little of it, sometimes a lot.
Either way, act as an adult and be patient. "

napaboy wrote on Dec 31, 2007 10:42 PM:

" Kate, I think you need more to do in life. Way to jack up everyone's airfare's with your frivolous lawsuit. Don't fly again and just shut up. Guess what? That's life. Everyone has bad day's but we don't all go around acting sue happy. Hope the airlines defense buries your case and makes a complete embarrassment out of your claims. "

Join the conversation

*Member ID:
*Password:
Remember login? (requires cookies)
	Forgot Your Password?

Create an account

Comment Guidelines

The goal of the story comments section at NapaValleyRegister.com is to have an open, thought-provoking, civil community forum for all issues.

What gets your comment posted?

• Staying on topic

• Keeping your comment to 300 words or less

• Avoiding name-calling

• Addressing your comments to the message rather than the messenger

What gets your comment deleted?

• Personal attacks

• Derogatory remarks

• Name-calling of any sort

• Going off-topic

• Hate speech

• Racially-insensitive comments

• Implying guilt of a subject in a crime story before there is a court verdict

• Posting e-mail addresses

• Posting comments of a commercial nature

• POSTING WITH ALL CAPITAL LETTERS

• Linking multiple comments together with "to be continued..." to get around the 300 word limit.

The fine print

- Comments are either approved or denied. We do not edit comments.

- You are welcome to modify and resubmit a denied comment.

- Comments may take several hours to be posted.

- Comments posted are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of NapaValleyRegister.com, its employees or its parent company.

- Do you have information on a story? Please go to our virtual newsroom to send us a news tip.

- If you feel a posted comment has violated our guidelines, please contact online@napanews.com or add a comment indicating you have an issue and our moderators will review the comment in question.

Search: