Alaska Airlines flight AS322 turned a weather diversion into an overnight stay in Yakima on November 7, after a faulty fuel indicator was found while the Boeing 737-900ER was being refueled. The plane landed safely at Yakima Air Terminal around 9:25 PM, but passengers did not get off for more than two hours and were not allowed to disembark until around 12:15 AM.
The flight had started in Dallas at 6:56 PM, about 50 minutes behind schedule, and was carrying 127 passengers and eight crew members. By the time the night settled in, the disruption that began with severe weather had become a very different problem on the ground: a grounded aircraft, checked bags still aboard, and passengers waiting inside the terminal for word on what would happen next.
Michael Pinter said an Alaska Airlines representative had “offered rooms,” but that did not translate into hotel beds for the people left in Yakima. Instead, around 50 passengers spent the night on Red Cross cots in the terminal, with blankets, toiletries, baby formula and water brought in to help them get through the night. Horizon Air staff bought Taco Bell for passengers on Saturday night, and breakfast burritos arrived the next morning from local authorities.
That left passengers in a narrow space between being stranded and being told to stay put. They were warned that if they left the terminal there would be no way back in because TSA facilities were uncrewed, and at around 4:00 AM they were forced out of the secure area. Many then slept in an under-construction office and meeting space for the rest of the night, while the aircraft remained grounded after the fuel indicator issue was discovered.
The split-screen here is hard to miss. Alaska Airlines appears to have treated the diversion as outside its control because the approach to Seattle was disrupted by weather, yet the plane stayed in Yakima overnight because of a mechanical problem found after landing. That is why the unanswered question matters now: if the flight could not continue and passengers could not leave, why were hotel rooms or meal vouchers not provided once the diversion became an all-night grounded delay? Alaska Airlines’ maintenance team arrived on Sunday morning to inspect the aircraft, but the passengers had already spent the night making their own arrangements on the terminal floor.
