I have been on two flights in the past where situations similar to this have happened. Once, our Northwest flight from Grand Rapids to Detroit stopped in Lansing to pick up around 35 passengers who were on a cancelled flight to get them to Detroit, I ended up having to take a later connecting flight. Also, last month during the Denver mayhem, I was on a United Flight from Detroit to Denver that stopped in St Louis to pick up 20 passengers who had been stranded there for a few days, which delayed us getting into Denver, but seeing as the situation in Denver was so bad, no one seemed to mind the slight inconvienence so many of these people could get to where they were going.