http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/story/2012-04-22/Airports-develop-plans-for-diversions-tarmac-delays/54473438/1

Tarmac (Photo credit: mrdarkroom)

Airlines have long had plans for where to send planes when routes are blocked by weather or planes suffer mechanical problems. They face huge fines if they keep passengers waiting on the tarmac for three or four hours. But after some passengers sat for more than seven hours on Hartford‘s airport tarmac during an Oct. 29 snowstorm, Congress ordered all the nation’s airports to submit plans to the Transportation Department for dealing with diverted planes.