‘It was horrible’: Stranded Southwest passengers still waiting to recoup costs from airline meltdown
LA TimesOnly weeks after a Southwest Airlines meltdown led to thousands of canceled flights and stranded passengers, the nation’s air travel system was briefly interrupted Wednesday due to an outage in the computer system used by the Federal Aviation Administration to give pilots vital information before they take off. “I am trying to be patient and give them a chance to make things right,” said one of Southwest’s stranded passengers, actor Deborah Rombaut. “What bothers me is that I don’t have a timeline as far as when I’ll be reimbursed.” Thousands of holiday travelers like Rombaut were stranded late last month when Southwest Airlines said its computer system that tracked crew scheduling could not keep up with a severe winter storm. “I always loved Southwest, because they’re a major hub and my family is in Texas,” Luzzo said, who works at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.