back 20 years ago or so I was stuck on a plane from early morning till late night - long enough that the episode was the inspiration for the rule that pax had to be allowed to deplane after x amount of time. the delay was all weather related. the flight was at the gate for hours and hours, then they thought a window was going to be open up long enough to get some flights out, we were one of them, but when waiting for our turn to take off the airport went back to a ground hold and we spent hours more waiting. I dont recall exactly how long it was, something like 12 hrs or more...