New York: Hundreds of passengers were stranded for hours overnight on airliners that could not take off from John F. Kennedy International Airport because of the ice and snowstorm that pummelled the US northeast.
The exact number of planes stuck on the tarmac was unclear, but irate passengers reported that the problems affected several airlines.
Pilots and officials blamed some of the problems on a shortage of deicing fluid and a new federal regulation giving pilots a narrow window to get their planes in the air once the chemicals are applied.
The change has meant some jets need to get doused repeatedly if their takeoffs are delayed.
Rahul Chandran said he was trapped aboard a Cathay Pacific Airways jet from midnight until nearly 9:30am on Saturday, when the flight to Vancouver was finally cancelled.
Throughout the night, the pilot repeatedly described problems with deicing equipment, including a lack of fluid, that kept the plane waiting endlessly to have its wings sprayed. When the airline finally gave up and tried to return the plane to its terminal, it took at least another hour to arrange a gate, he said.
Cramped condition
"You can't keep your passengers on the plane for 9 1/2 hours," said Chandran, 30, of New York City. "They kept saying 'half an hour more, 45 minutes more'. But by the time it got to hour six, we were pretty much accepting that we weren't going to go ... At least in the terminal, you can get up and walk around."
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the metropolitan area's airports, said airlines - not the airport - are responsible for supplying and maintaining terminal deicing equipment.
Port Authority aviation director Bill DeCosta said airport operators and the carriers need to collectively work out a solution quickly to what is evolving as a major problem with deicing.
Just last month, JetBlue stranded passengers on several planes for up to 10 1/2 hours during a similar storm. At the time, the airline said its inability to get planes deiced in accordance with the new FAA rules was a factor.
"We and the carriers need to sit down and find out whether there is anything we can do," DeCosta said. "I know there are a lot of irate passengers, and they have a right to be."
