Feb 15, 2007 7:39 pm US/Eastern
JFK JetBlue Passengers Face Turmoil On The Tarmac
by Andrew Kirtzman
QUEENS (CBS) ―
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A JetBlue plane sits at a gate at New York's JFK airport on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2006. Dozens of passengers were stranded for hours aboard JetBlue flights at JFK during a snow and ice storm.
CBS
JetBlue Airlines apologized to dozens of passengers who were kept sitting on planes at New York's JFK Airport for 10 hours or more without ever taking off.
The airline said half of its 550 flights were cancelled because of a winter storm that also caused massive traffic and transit delays throughout the Tri-State area.
Ten JetBlue flights, however, were loaded with passengers on board. Some made it to the runways only to run into icing problems that kept them grounded. Some of the planes at the gate became frozen to the ground and passengers weren't able to disembark.
One couple told CBS 2 News they thought they were about to honeymoon in Aruba. Others were dreaming of the sun and warm waters of Cancun. Instead, many said they felt like hostages being held on the tarmac.
"We had very limited toilet usage while we were on the plane," said Elizabeth Regale, who logged 10 hours of what she described as hell on a trip to nowhere.
"To sit on a plane for that long to be pulled into a gate for nine hours was horrible," said another passenger.
Early Thursday morning, the airline's Web site warned that other "flights to and from New York City (JFK, LaGuardia, Stewart and Newark, NJ), Boston, Washington D.C. and Upstate New York (Rochester and Buffalo) may be delayed or cancelled." It urged passengers to check the status of their flight before heading to their local airports.
JetBlue's apology said anyone stuck on one of its flights for more than three hours Wednesday would receive a full refund and a free roundtrip ticket for a future flight.
Some, however, were in no mood to accept that apology.
"Disorganized. No one knows anything. It's all chaos," said one.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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