Virgin America flight from Los Angeles to New York becomes a 14-hour nightmare

The Virgin America Airbus A320 jet from Los Angeles to New York's JFK airport was carrying 126 passengers when it was diverted in horrible weather to Newburgh, N.Y., about 90 miles north of New York City.

The plane circled above New York waiting to land for two hours before landing at Newburgh's Stewart airport, seven hours after departing Los Angeles. Passengers sat on the plane for an additional 4.5 hours, waiting to take off from Newburgh, before the flight was canceled.

Food supplies ran thin and potato chips were rationed to passengers.  “That’s all we got, four chips and a half cup of water,” passenger Justin Gordon told the New York Post.

Passengers also said they were treated rudely by the flight crew.

The ordeal was documented online, thanks to Virgin's free wifi service on board, by David Martin, the CEO of social networking service Kontain, and by "Dancing with the Stars" judge Carrie Ann Inaba.

Martin 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 not allowed to leave the plane and enter the airport terminal despite the long delay, and that at one point police boarded the plane as the flight crew "lost control" of frustrated passengers.

Virgin doesn't normally operate out of Stewart, meaning it had no staff to bring the passengers food, unload their bags, or arrange ground transportation for the 90-mile drive to Kennedy.

Just getting people off the plane was a problem, airline spokeswoman Abby Lunardini said.

Eventually, competitor Jet Blue's employees helped out the airline. Passengers were put on buses to JFK.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced new rules in December, which 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. However, they are scheduled to go into effect in late April only.


[Source: USA Today, CBS News, AP]