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http://ballyblog.wordpress.com/2007/02/15/jetblue-passengers-describe-feeling-held-hostage-on-plane-for-10-hours/#comment-2860

JetBlue Passengers Describe ‘Feeling Held Hostage’ on Plane for 10 HoursFebruary 15th, 2007

(AP) QUEENS, N.Y. Jet Blue Airlines apologized late Wednesday to dozens of passengers who were kept sitting on planes at New York’s JFK International Airport for 10 hours or more without ever taking off, reports Andrew Kirtzman of WCBS-TV, the CBS affiliate in New York.

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 WCBS-TV they thought they were about to honeymoon in Aruba. Others said were dreaming of the sun and warm waters of Cancun. Instead, many described 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 canceled.” 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,” one passenger said.

TRAPPED LIKE ANIMALS: ‘There was no air’… ‘We had very limited toilet usage’…

Flight attendants joked about overtime they’d make…

~~~ I’d be fuming mad. Who cares about the free round-trip tickets. The pilots, at the risk of losing their jobs, should’ve just taken them back to the gate. It would’ve saved the airline money!

Posted by Chris
Filed in Wow, Aviation, U.S. News, Health & Wellness, Shocking, You've GOT to be Kidding, Caught on Video, Caught in the Act