At Least 4 JetBlue Planes Stuck On Tarmac

Feb. 14 - KGO (KGO) -- At JFK Airport, at least four JetBlue planes have been stuck on the runway fully loaded with passengers and children for hours. The planes were running out of food and water -- and the passengers were running out of patience.

Flight 751, which was scheduled to depart at 8:15 this morning, was caught up in weather delays after the airline tried to get the flight off the ground during a narrow takeoff window earlier today. The attempt failed, and because arriving flights left no gates free, Flight 751 sat on the tarmac for more than nine hours.

Two passengers aboard the flight contacted WABC saying passengers were unable to deplane, and that beverages were running short aboard the flight. JetBlue says the passengers were held on the flight because "we were operating as if the aircraft would be able to fly." The airline says it was relying on forecast models that indicated there would be a departure window.

One-hundred and thirty-four passengers sat on a plane for more than nine hours this afternoon and this morning. Passengers didn't get off until 5 p.m. (eastern time). And as you would imagine, all that time never getting to Cancun had passengers furious.

"There was no power and it was hot. There was no air. They kept having to open the actual plane doors so we could breath," a passenger on the flight told WABC.

"Nobody gave us any answers. They kept telling us we know as much as you do. And I said, I don't work here, you work here, give me answers," another passenger said.

"Everybody is incredibly tired and frustrated and we didn't expect to be in New York tonight, so it's rediculous. Just sitting there and sitting there and them saying they were going to pull us into the gate and they never did. There was very little food. It was just a nightmare," said another passenger.

JetBlue says it's cancelled about 125 of its 500 daily flights system wide. About 150 flights depart from JFK on an average day. JetBlue says it can't say precisely how many of its JFK flights got off the ground today.

JetBlue says at minimum, all the passengers aboard Flight 751 will get a full refund and complimentary round trip ticket on a future JetBlue flight. Jenny Dervin, a JetBlue spokesperson, says "the driver of this situation is the weather. The weather just did not play out as forecasted. But we know it does not relieve our responsibilities for our customers' comfort."

Dervin says the airline would never intentionally leave passengers sitting for hours aboard a plane that couldn't fly. "We would never intentionally do that. We would only position an aircraft if we thought we could depart that aircraft within a reasonable amount of time."

Late Wednesday evening, a JetBlue spokesperson said, "We did not do our best ... no excuse for why we allowed those passengers to sit on the tarmac."

Airport officials say if JetBlue had told them that they had people needing rescuing on planes out on the tarmac, they would have sent buses. They said JetBlue didn't call the airport to tell them that until after 3 p.m.

WABC has learned about another JetBlue flight -- Flight 351 -- at JFK that was scheduled to depart at 6:45 a.m. but has been sitting on the tarmac. A viewer called in to say shortly after 4:30 p.m., the pilot told passengers they will deplane and be transported back to the terminal.

Late Wednesday afternoon, WABC learned that JetBlue Flight 850, which landed at 9:44 a.m. at JFK, has been sitting on the tarmac since.

Information courtesy of WABC-TV, New York

Get more News »

• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•