Stuck on a plane for 10/12 hours...yikes

Unlike the flight that may have been almost as long, I see that the snowstorm up in the mid-atlantic trapped Delta flyers on a plane for 11 hours. Although a Delta official told the reporter that the passengers on that flight were free to leave and the plane never left the gate, I suppose the video that the two teenagers took may prove otherwise. Because I can be biased here, I would tend to side with the plane and could believe that these teens were told they could go, but if they left, they wouldn't be on that flight if and when it finally did leave. So I question whether they were actually forced to stay on the plane, which would preclude any false imprisonment allegation they may think about bringing. I picture these two as loyal watchers of shows like the Hills or Laguna Beach. (This last statement is a joke by the way.)

On the other hand, another flight got iced in while the plane was in the queue getting ready to take off. See JFK JetBlue Passengers Face Turmoil on the Tarmac and 10 Hours on JetGlue. While this doesn't qualify as false imprisonment either, I can only imagine the PR problems that now face this airline (and perhaps Delta as well). Obviously they will get a ticket for another flight, but is that really enough of a remedy? Not sure what the passengers (as a whole) could do, but I'm sure if they pooled their collective complaints together, they could get something out of it.

Luckily for the airline nobody had a medical condition and died as a result of being stuck on the plane without swift help. Hopefully they started the in-flight movies at least.