I have to say I'm a little surprised by people's willingness to accept this as "**** happens".

Where do you draw the line? 11hours? 24? 3 days? I think 9 hours or even 3 is more than enough to get angry about and demand action.

Not that I'm looking for criminal charges or anything, but it seems to me that the primary reason that they don't let you off the plane is financial (they would lose a lot in fees, costs, need to compensate other flyers, etc...)

How is that substantially different from holding people for ransom?

I'm normally pretty against our litigiousness as a country, but this seems like a pretty good case for a law suit...

Also, I think that beyond it being an acceptable use of 911, it's actually a pretty good one as these things go. Of course there are many more urgent emergencies during inclement weather, but this is certainly more valid than "my doggie door is frozen shut and fluffy can't come in," and I'm sure they get plenty of those.

If "frivolous" calls like this became such a problem that it overwhelmed 911, then perhaps something could be done. In NYC there used to be thousands of calls to 911 whenver it got cold, complaining about lack of heat or hot water. Then the city established an alternate line for urgent, not emergency calls.

If ATL (or CVG or CLE) wants to establish a 1-800-I'm-trapped-on-a-plane-on-the-tarmac-and-the-damn-FA-won't-me-off line. I'd see that as a reasonable alternative, but after 9 hours, it's absolutely something that shouldn't be happening and has to be addressed somehow.