Was just curious what my brother in-law should expect from American Airlines after an incident that occured on the 19th of Sept. on AA#40 from LAX-JFK.

He told me their flight was an hour and a half delayed getting out of LAX. Finally airborne and about 30 mins. out of LAX the plane, a 767, started making turns to the left and then to the right. He said this lasted for about 5 mins. and then the captain made an announcement that they were having hydraulic problems and that a return to LAX would be warranted.

They did manage to fly back to the LA area but were told that in order to land safely they would have to use up most of the fuel before landing. He's not sure why they couldn't just dump the fuel and land but anyhow, they flew around the Palmdale area, in the desert near LA, for five and a half hours.

He said several of the passengers were very fearful for their lives and he found the situation to be very tense. The Airphones did not work, (they were probably switched off), so he could not make any contact with anyone.

They did land safely back at LAX and after 2 hours on the ground reboarded another flight which arrived JFK at 0100 AM. And to the hotel at 2:30am. He had a meeting at 7am so I can imagine he was a bit tired to say the least.

In the meantime, American, to its credit, sent him a letter apologizing for the incident and said they were checking further into it and would send some type of compensation in the near future.

My question is what would be fair and just compensation that he should expect from AA ? He was on a full fare First Class ticket (that's the movie industry for you!).

Just curious as to what you all think