14-Hour LA-NY Flight Riles Passengers

(CBS)  Passengers on a Virgin America flight from Los Angeles to New York spent more than six hours stranded on a tarmac, received little food or water, and had to take the last leg of their journey by bus - arriving some 14 hours after they departed.

The flight left Los Angeles International Airport about 20 minutes late. As it neared New York, John F. Kennedy Airport was experiencing dangerously strong winds of 60 mph or more and the plane was forced to divert to Stewart International Airport, about 70 miles northwest of the city.

The plane stayed on the tarmac at Stewart for more than six hours as the pilot and crew monitored the weather and seemed to promise a nearing departure again and again - and the passengers grew increasingly frustrated.

The ordeal was documented online by David Martin, the CEO of social networking service Kontain, and by "Dancing with the Stars" judge Carrie Ann Inaba. (Virgin America offers free WiFi on flights.)

Martin described an increasingly tense scene on board the airplane. He said that when one passenger asked a question, the flight attended roared back, "You are really getting on my freaking nerves! You need to shut the hell up!"

Martin also said that passengers were barred from leaving the plane and entering the airport terminal despite the long delay at Stewart and that at one point police boarded the plane as the flight crew "lost control" of frustrated passengers.

Ultimately, Jet Blue employees - helping out a competitor with no regular facilities at Stewart - arrived to put the passengers on buses to JFK. They arrived around midnight ET after leaving Los Angeles around 10:30 PT that morning.

Virgin America has disputed some of the descriptions of the flight, saying that the plane was only grounded for 4 ½ hours and that passengers were in fact allowed inside the terminal.

In December, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced new rules that - with limited exceptions - bar airlines from keeping passengers on a plane on the tarmac for more than three hours. The rules provide a fine of up to $27,500 per passenger on board the flight.

Whether or not Virgin allowed some of its passengers to deplane and enter the terminal at Stewart remains in dispute. But under the rule, the airline must deplane all passengers before the three-hour mark - not just provide that option to some - reports CBS News producer Carter Yang.

The new DOT rules also state that "carriers are required to provide adequate food and potable drinking water for passengers within two hours of the aircraft being delayed on the tarmac and to maintain operable lavatories," which some passengers say were not done.

"The department is investigating this incident," DOT spokesman Bill Mosley told Yang. "We can't speak to the facts yet. We have asked for the carrier's report on what happened."

Virgin has apologized to passengers. "After reviewing the particular circumstances of this diversion, we agreed that we needed to have done a better job with communicating a difficult situation to our guests," the company said in a statement. The CEO also sent a passengers a letter providing a refund for their tickets and an additional $100 for future travel.

It remains to be seen whether any of the passengers will put those credits to use.

Watch Martin's video:

[FauxNews]

Airline delays and cancellations are commonplace now. I'm not sure why this even made the news.

[Jingogunner]

Well well well, what do we got here, folks? I live in UK, am a Briton, but Virgin operates here as well. Should I make sure that it does not operate ME? Poor Mr Brnson, he must be so upset, think of the money he's going to lose from all those other potential customers who see this story. Of course, this item has not been reported here in the UK, mainly because the British are a soft and dying nation; when shouted at by flight atendants and anyone else in a uniform, they just submit, saying thank you sir or madam, please spit on me, I love to submit to anyone in authority. Please kick me, I am a laughing-stock-of the-world British person. Would not be a news item in UK, see? So don't you good folk in the US worry, Sir Richard will not lose a penny, except from me of course, but I was born in Africa.

Jack Rainbow

[rockcutr]

The arrogance of legal kidnapping.
The fine imposed on the airlines should be split 50% with the PAYING guests. Maybe that would light a fire under the airline rules. These are not prisoners...nor troops. There had better be plenty of free food and water,,,oh, and doggy downers for the attendants. **** the hell up!!!! REally????

[tmittelstaed]

Virgin is going to be screwed on this one, DOT has been waiting for one of those airlines to pull a stunt like this to make an example out of them. I agree with the airline that the passengers were only on the ground 4 1/2 hours - but obviously since they wern't in the terminal they were prevented from leaving, and since the rules say 3 hours, the airline has already admitted they know they are screwed. My guess is when the CEO of Virgin heard of it he started cursing his pilots out, since they should have been aware of current regulations and should have booted the passengers out of the plane and back to the terminal inside of three hours.

[texark66]

Amtrak may be slow, but it is 100 % better then some of the airlines these days. Let's hope high speed rail gets going as fast as possible.

All Aboard trains, not planes.

[bobkat258]

If I sat in a plane on a tarmack for even 4 hours I'd be breaking the door down to get out. That's TORTURE!

[peregrine3]

Maybe cheeney's in charge of their marketing.

[Scimajor]

Forgive me but the clip of the crew shows nothing but proffesionalism at it's best.

[peregrine3]

You know I'm ABSOULUTELY sure this is not the same case but I flew out of Bangkok on PAN AM 001 1970 and they came on to tell us that we might not be able to land in Hong Kong because of an impending typoon. HK was experiencing 50mph cross winds, so they were going to take passengers onto Tokyo and bring them back the next day when the winds calmed down. There was almost a mutiny. Talk about ugly people shouting and screaming about how lousy the airline was because they wouldn't land. I've also seen pictures of cops ruffing up people; but what they don't show you is what the people did to warrant physical abuse or restraint. I just want to say, unless it was a Northwest flight, the pilots probably weren't partying in the cockpit and were experiencing the same if not more stress because of their responsibilty that the passengers were.

[bikeboy49]

I've NEVER seen or heard the story before where the airport had to 'aggressively release' passengers from a plane due to the AIRLINE STAFF ALREADY ON BOARD!

[smoknmirrors]

Can you imagine the dumbstruck look on a suicidal terrorist bomber's face when he learns that these are the Virgins he has been promised?

[carilovesscott]

LOL!!!!!!!

[peregrine3]

Viscous Virgins.