On New Year’s weekend in 1999, Jeannie Johanningmeier, her husband and her two small sons languished for nine hours, along with a plane full of other passengers, on a runway during a Detroit blizzard.

The stories circulated in the media by the “prisoners of Northwest” garnered so much attention that Congress called hearings, and Johanningmeier testified. She said, “People began shouting questions that were never answered. Some just swore. At one point, I told an attendant that my children hadn’t eaten since 7 a.m. She said there wasn’t anything they could do. The plane’s supply of peanuts, pretzels and soda had run out. At times I felt like crying or screaming but knew that would only make matters worse.”

Congress was investigating whether to clamp down on runway delays with some sort of legislation. Worried airlines adopted a voluntary code of conduct. Then the economy began to tank and then Sept. 11 happened. With airlines facing security issues and bankruptcy, the idea of a passengers’ bill of rights became almost frivolous.

Still, the prisoners-of-Northwest incident generated such bad public relations that it seemed impossible a nine-hour runway delay could happen again. But occasionally, it did. In late December, the New York Times reported that passengers on an American Airlines flight sat nine hours on the tarmac in Austin, bereft of food, water and clean toilets.

And last week, JetBlue created more “prisoners” when passengers were stranded in parked jets at John F. Kennedy International Airport for up to 11 hours.

Airlines don’t have as many excuses for this phenomenon as they once did. Most have emerged from bankruptcy, because people are traveling again in record numbers. And the airlines have had eight years since the Northwest incident to figure out how to “rescue” passengers stranded on airport tarmacs, even in blizzards.

The airlines’ free ride might be over. The JetBlue debacle perked up Congress. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., intends to sponsor a bill that would allow passengers to leave an airplane that’s been stuck on a runway more than three hours.

The media has also picked up the drumbeat again for a passengers’ bill of rights. And the blog universe – which barely existed in 1999 – has joined in as well. The blog site for the Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights has collected thousands of signatures and encourages first-person stories, and photographs, of runway strandings.

Society relies heavily on air travel for commerce and recreation. A comprehensive approach to solving this issue, involving Congress, the airlines, consumer advocate groups and passengers, should be undertaken – with no delay this time around.