Fliers Get Class-Action Status

Passengers who were stranded on the runway at Detroit Metropolitan Airport during a January snowstorm can join forces against Northwest Airlines in a class-action lawsuit, a judge ruled Friday.

The ruling allows about 8,000 passengers - who in some cases were trapped on airplanes for more than eight hours Jan. 3 - to join four lawsuits already filed.

Attorneys Larry Charfoos and Geoffrey Fieger, who will be chief counsel for the plaintiffs, said thousands of individual claims would have strained the legal system and caused an undue burden on passengers who live outside Michigan.