"Hundreds Stranded at New York's JFK Airport After Ice Storm"

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Storms again leave passengers stranded on jets at NY airport 
By David B. Caruso and Jennifer Peltz
The Associated Press 


New York -- Hundreds of passengers were stranded for hours overnight on
airliners that couldn't take off from John F. Kennedy International Airport
because of the ice and snow storm that pummeled the Northeast. 

The exact number of planes stuck on the tarmac was unclear, but irate
passengers reported that the problems seemed to affect several airlines and
may have been linked to shortages of deicing fluid at the airport. 

Rahul Chandran said he was stuck aboard a Cathay Pacific Airways jet from
midnight until nearly 9:30 a.m. Saturday, when the flight to Vancouver was
finally canceled. 
 
Throughout the night, the pilot repeatedly described problems with deicing
equipment, including a lack of fluid, that kept the plane waiting endlessly
to have its wings sprayed. When the airline finally gave up and tried to
return the plane to its terminal, it took at least another hour to arrange a
gate, he said. 

"You can't keep your passengers on the plane for 9½ hours," said Chandran,
30, of New York City. 

"They kept saying, Half an hour more, 45 minutes more.' But by the time it
got to hour six, we were pretty much accepting that we weren't going to go .
. . At least in the terminal, you can get up and walk around." 

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the
metropolitan area's airports, said airlines -- not the airport -- are
responsible for supplying and maintaining terminal deicing equipment. 

>From Friday to Saturday morning, more than 3,600 commuter and mainline
flights were canceled because of the effects of the storm. JetBlue, US
Airways, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines all reported cancella tions. 

One Virgin Atlantic flight from London was diverted to JFK when the weather
temporarily closed Boston's airport Friday evening. The plane, with about
200 passengers on board, sat on a taxiway for around six hours before it
could take off again, said Virgin spokeswoman Brooke Lawer. 

The plane, which was supposed to have arrived in Boston at 6:30 p.m. Friday,
finally touched down there at 4 a.m. Saturday. 

Last month, JetBlue stranded passengers on several planes for up to 10½
hours during the Valentine's Day storm. The airline was unable to resume
normal operations for days. 

For this storm, JetBlue took no chances of a repeat. 

It canceled about 400 of 550 scheduled flights across the country Friday
because of the weather, rather than risk leaving more people stuck aboard
idle planes.

 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************