Extra-long tarmac delays: Airports liable, too?

The U.S. Department of Transportation's so-called "Passenger Bill of Rights," in place since April 2010, states that any plane being held on a tarmac for longer than three hours could result in an airline having to pay a fine of $27,500 per passenger, if found guilty.

In the case of JetBlue Flight 504 -- held on the tarmac of Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Conn. for more than seven hours during the freak East Coast storm on Saturday night -- the cost of holding the 129 passengers on-board could be more than $3.5 million.

But will anyone be held responsible?

When asked if anyone will be fined in this case, CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg said, simply, "No. ... Nobody has yet."

Diverted from a New York airport due to the snow, the plane's passengers endured hours without water and working restrooms. At one point, tempers flared and the pilot begged for help, even issuing a call for police to address the escalating situation on-board.

Rob Maruster, chief operating officer of JetBlue, has apologized for the incident, saying, "We know we let some of you down over the course of this weekend, and for that, we are truly sorry."

Yet, some are now asking if others should be held liable, as well, because the Passenger Bill of Rights excludes airports from penalties.

Greenberg says some of the responsibility should fall on the airport.

"Once you divert a plane, for whatever reason, and an airport accepts that plane, there's a certain responsibility the airport should have for the care and feeding of that passenger that goes beyond what the airline is responsible for," he said.

Greenberg called the situation an "obsessive pursuit of the jetway."

"We don't need a jetway here," he said. "It's called 'go back to the future.' Get the stairs to the plane, get the people off the plane."

CBS News aviation safety expert Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who famously landed the jet on the Hudson River back in 2009, said situations like this need to be resolved much more quickly and crews must to work together.

Sullenberger said, "The airlines, the (Federal Aviation Administration air) traffic control system, the airports, all have to have action plans in place that they can quickly turn to in adverse weather events to get stairs and buses to airplanes that cannot make it to gates."

Greenberg said the pilot could have taken the situation "one step further" by declaring an on-board emergency or calling authorities beyond the airport's control tower.

"This is a 911 call," Greenberg said. "Once you declare an on-board emergency, it takes it to another level and these people will get off the plane."

But can a pilot simply deploy the plane's emergency slide to get the passengers out?

Greenberg said that's often reserved for situations when the plane is in danger, and is a very expensive, last resort-type measure.

However, the overall situation of lengthy airport delays may not be as grim as this case would lead one to believe. Greenberg says that, in the 16 months prior to the DOT adopting the three-hour delay rule, there were 977 incidents reported. However, in that same span after the rule was added, that number has fallen to 54.