Thousands of Northwest Airlines passengers who were stranded at Detroit's airport in a 1999 blizzard will share in a $7.1 million settlement agreed to by the airline. Passengers brought a class action lawsuit against the airline in June 1999 after almost 8,000 of them were forced to sit in planes on the tarmac for over 11 hours. The weather forced the Detroit airport to close and flights that had already left the gates but not yet airborne were forced to sit on the tarmac. Passengers were irate when the airline refused to return dozens of planes to the terminal.

The conditions aboard the planes were abominable. Many planes ran out of food and water. Most bathrooms overflowed with urine and feces. Northwest says that the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing, and the airline still claims that there was nothing it could have done differently as all gates at the airport were already full with other flights. However, attorneys for the stranded passengers said that the airline scheduled too many flights, resulting in gridlock. "Nationally, this is a clear flashing-red-light message to airline management that passengers do have rights," an attorney for the passengers said.