JetBlue Passengers Stranded for Almost 11 Hours

JetBlue Passengers Stranded for Almost 11 Hours




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NEW YORK (AP) -- Hundreds of passengers who were stranded on parked
JetBlue planes for up to 101/2 hours could have been evacuated sooner
if the airline had not waited to ask airport officials for help, the
company founder said Thursday.

The airline acknowledged that it hesitated nearly five hours before
calling in shuttle buses to unload 10 jets that spent the day sitting
on runways at Kennedy Airport because of icy weather and gate
congestion.

While they waited, exasperated passengers sat within sight of the
terminal without food, adequate restrooms or a reasonable explanation
as to why they were not moving.

JetBlue officials finally phoned the Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey, which runs area airports, at 3 p.m. to ask for staircases
and buses to get people off the planes and back to the terminal.

"We should have called them sooner," said JetBlue founder and CEO
David Neeleman.

Once they did, some passengers were free within 30 minutes. Others had
to wait while the Port Authority shoveled out snow-covered equipment
and rounded up drivers.

Many of the stranded passengers did not return to the terminal until 6
p.m. Most had boarded their aircraft around 8 a.m. Some of the jets
were incoming flights that had been on the ground since 10 a.m. Six
flights were stranded for more than eight hours.

Neeleman said he could not apologize enough.

"We should have done better," he said. "There was an opportunity to do
better."

JetBlue's problems began developing when snow and ice pellets made
takeoffs difficult but did not stop landings, Neeleman said, resulting
in the airline accumulating 52 airplanes at a terminal with 21 gates.

He said the airline held out too long for a break in the icy
conditions, then had planes "freeze to the ground" where they had been
waiting.

Some passengers spent an hour or two on delayed flights before being
brought back to the terminal. Others saw their flights canceled.

Weather delays of up to six hours continued to plague JFK on Thursday.
More than 300 flights were canceled. At Newark Liberty International
Airport in New Jersey and LaGuardia Airport, delays averaged more than
two hours.

Terminals at JFK filled with passengers trying to arrange alternative
flights. JetBlue canceled 195 of its 568 planned flights in an attempt
to avoid being overwhelmed for a second straight day.

Other airlines experienced problems, too. Mark Mannix, a government
affairs officer for New York's Metro-North Railroad, said he spent
hours stranded aboard an American Airlines jet.

The plane was scheduled to depart for Miami at 5:45 a.m. It did not
push back from the gate until nearly 7:45 a.m. and soon halted for
another delay. The pilot finally returned to the terminal at 10:45
a.m. after deciding it was not safe to fly.

Mannix said the airline made food available -- at a price. He said he
paid $3 for a cookie.

"We're pretty much cattle. We're at their mercy," he said. "They don't
seem like they have a plan or are prepared. Like this is the first
time they had a snowfall."

American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner said an icy runway prevented
the plane from taking off.

On Thursday, JetBlue promised a full refund and a free round-trip
flight to customers delayed aboard an aircraft for more than three
hours. Passengers with canceled flights were being offered a refund.
All other passengers with travel booked through Monday were being
offered a chance to cancel and rebook, without having to pay the usual
fee.

Asked why the airline did not summon staircases and shuttle buses to
unload the 10 planes with extraordinary delays sooner, Neeleman said,
"That's a very good question."

"I think the ice condition made it very difficult for us," he said.
"We were worried about our customers falling down the stairs and
hurting themselves."

The Federal Aviation Administration has no rules regarding how long
airlines may leave passengers aboard a grounded craft, but Port
Authority guidelines consider passengers officially "stranded" if they
remain aboard a parked plane for more than two hours.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/u...?storyid=76076