(Image Source: Consumer Traveler)
BY SAMUEL JOSEPH
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Seven hours on a tarmac -- and JetBlue passengers were none too happy.
NBC Nightly News reports the delay for the passengers of JetBlue flight 504 was anything but short- stuck on a tarmac in Hartford Connecticut.
CRAIG MELVIN: “Frustrated passengers on JetBlue Flight 504 could look out their windows and see the terminal, but could not get off the plane. One of them snapped these pictures. No food, water and eventually the toilet stopped working.”
PASSENGER: “It almost came to fist-a-cuffs on the plane. There were children under the age of three, for eight hours on a plane, isn’t pleasant.”
CRAIG MELVIN: “After seven hours state troopers finally boarded the aircraft to deal with a medical emergency.”
And it wasn’t just passengers getting frustrated. CNN’s American Morning has audio that shows even the pilot was upset with the delay.
PILOT: “Look, you know we can’t seem to get any help from our own company. I apologize for this, but is there any way you can get a tug and a tow bar out here to us and get us toward somewhere to a gate or something? I don’t care. Take us anywhere.... We’ve got the show of authorities on board but I have a paraplegic on board that needs to come off, I have a diabetic on here that’s got an issue. It’s a list of things, I just got to get some help.”
The flight was bound for New Jersey but forced by the recent snowstorm on the East Coast to land in Connecticut. JetBlue was quick to give a statement on the company blog saying the event was not entirely its fault. JetBlue says the flight was one of 23 planes diverted to the Hartford airport.
“Getting all the flights deplaned at the same time in a small airport is not unlike trying to get an elephant into a smart car; it’s not an easy fit. As if things weren’t challenging enough, the airport experienced intermittent power outages, which made refueling and jetbridge deplaning difficult. Temporary loss of de-icing capability added yet another challenge to being able to get planes out in Hartford.”
But the passengers don’t seem to be buying it. ABC spoke with one of the passengers who says JetBlue simply didn’t care.
JOHN TROMBADORE: “JetBlue has demonstrated a callousness toward its customers, towards the passengers of that plane that I found hard to comprehend. They should have been preparing to allow the passengers off at two and a half hours on the tarmac. There’s the three hour limit. They didn’t do that. After four hours they should have brought in a food service. They could have done that. They didn’t. .... They could have and should have brought in somebody to service the bathrooms.”
An investigation has been launched in response to the incident. If found negligent in its duties JetBlue could face a fine of up to $27,500 per passenger.
Transcript by Newsy.
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