Passengers trapped on runway for eight hours
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Bad weather kept passengers on a Cancun-bound JetBlue flight trapped on the tarmac at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for eight hours Wednesday.
Flight 751 was supposed to leave New York at 8:15 a.m., but an expected break in the weather never came, resulting in what JetBlue called "unacceptable delays" for its customers.
The airline said there were no gates available for a return to the terminal, and some of the plane's wheels actually froze to the ground. By 4 p.m., the plane was still sitting on the runway.
Passengers waited for hours with no movement and no information. (Watch the stranded passengers describe the flight to nowhere )
"One of the pilots should get out here and have a mini-press conference," Sarah Greenberg, a passenger, said in a phone call to CNN as the plane sat on the tarmac. "The longer they wait, the more people are going to get upset. It's Psychology 101."
The plane was like a "sound-proofed coffin" when the windows were iced over, said Carolyn Faucher, another stranded passenger.
Greenberg said she and other passengers were getting testy because the flight attendants told them they couldn't hand out food or water until the plane had been grounded for at least four hours, citing an FAA rule. At least two of the passengers were diabetic.
Another passenger said there was no power, and flight attendants had to keep opening the doors so they could breathe comfortably.
JetBlue apologized to the stranded passengers, saying they should have been taken back to a gate earlier. Eventually, three New York Port Authority buses did take the passengers to a terminal.
The airline offered a full refund and round-trip JetBlue ticket for all customers whose flights were held more than three hours.
"Usually in a weather situation like this, we are able to safely take off within a reasonable amount of time," said JetBlue spokeswoman Jenny Dervin, "but today's weather situation did not clear up enough."
Referring to the passengers' trips to Cancun, JetBlue originally told CNN that they had located a crew and aircraft ready to go at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, but by then "JetBlue was not able to communicate with the majority of the customers. Either the customers returned home or left the airport and the surroundings," Dervin said.
Flight 751 was one of at least 10 JetBlue flights stuck on the ground at JFK because of inclement weather Wednesday, according to a JetBlue statement.
