Virgin America ‘Sorry’ for 16-Hour Travel Ordeal
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By now, maybe you've heard about the weekend's tarmac stranding disaster — this time on a Virgin America flight between Los Angeles and New York's JFK airport. Flight 404 departed Los Angeles at 10:34 a.m. ET and was diverted to Stewart Airport in Newburgh because of 60 mph wind gusts. Over 4.5 hours on the tarmac (some who sat through it say 7 hours), tempers began to flare and things got testy between the staff and passengers. Finally, they were let off the aircraft and transported by bus, arriving at their destination around 2 a.m. Sunday. Our course, it being the Digital Age, Facebook and Twitter status updates provided a steady information stream — including pictures and video — from inside the plane, including the footage from passenger David Martin. To make matters worse, what little snack food was on the plane had to be rationed. Virgin America CEO David Cush has already sent apology letters to passengers — offering each a refund and future $100 credit. He also called some, including "Dancing With the Stars" judge Carrie Ann Inaba, who was among the stranded passengers. The high-profile mishap comes six weeks before a new rule goes into effect mandating airlines to release passengers after three hours on the tarmac, a rule designed to prevent exactly these type of situations with the threat of substantial fines. Tonight, Vicki Mabrey has a closer look at the somewhat familiar world of travel nightmares. ——————– UPDATE: Embedded below is the segment, "Flight From Hell."
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Imagine a country where legislation has to be passed in order to FORCE a service provider to bodily release their customers. Being trapped in an airplane is not too different from being trapped in an elevator. Imagine getting into a cab in NYC, or going to a restaurant and not being let out for 10 hours becaues the driver or chef didn’t want to let you out. Sure, they could open the door and let you out, but they don’t want to in order to keep your money. I’d like to see criminal charges filed. Kidnapping, maybe. It’s illegal to restrain someone against their will.
Posted by: David | March 16, 2010, 7:50 pm 7:50 pm
Imagine, David, living in a country where cab or bus companies were fined for driving you into a traffic jam on a 4-lane highway, with no facilities nearby.
And of course, getting out of that cab or bus in a traffic jam is a much simpler operation than getting out of an airliner on a taxiway. And lets not forget to take into account the notion that perhaps not all passengers desire to go back to the gate, and forfeit the time already spent in line for the runway.
Not that I disagree that a solution to passenger discomfort and inconvenience must be found. I’m merely illustrating that finding the solution is not as simple as many make it out to be. And neither are the air carriers the sole villians. They’re merely the most visible and therfore the most easiliy targeted. Passengers should not forget that they also pay large amounts of federal taxes on their airfare. And they should be inquiring were those taxes have been going.
Posted by: SR Davies | March 16, 2010, 11:12 pm 11:12 pm
Having air turpulence is one thing but to force someone to sit in the plane for 4.5 hrs. is just plain Not Right! If I would have been one of those passengers and the CEO gave me a refund, plus the 100.00, And an apology what I’d say is: what good does it do really? In the past the CEO Wasted 4 1/2 hours of Your Lives, which no one can give you back!!
Something should be done with those airlines! WE pay their salary. With such high winds and probably it wouldn’t improve, there was No Reason to let Anyone sit there for almost 5 hrs! They could have let the passengers go after even 1 1/2 – 2 hrs. Everyone has every right to get off the airplane at a reasonable length of time(Remember We Pay For the Flight)! A rule is going through that lets passengers get off after 3 hours??? You’ve got to be kidding me?? I would say up to 2 hours if the coast is clear!
If everyone knows there is going to be rationing of food, when a situation like this occurs you must get the airline, to Guarantee they have Extra food on the plane!! GOD forbid, but what if it was worse and you had very littl food and you never hardly ate till 1 or 2 days later?? If you must you need to go all the way up to Obama about this. If you don’t, then you might suffer the consequences, if it happens again!
The CEO makes extreme amount of money off passengers and you mean to tell me he can’t afford some extra food on the plane just in case of landings/emergencies?? Oh by the way, having a cell phone company named the same as the airline company is way too much!! So theres No Way I would fly on their airline(with such an inappropriate name for an Airline Comapany), when they call themselves what they call themselves!!
Posted by: Rita | March 17, 2010, 12:35 am 12:35 am
I’m curious as to why the news story didn’t report WHY the passengers were unable to exit the aircraft?
I used to be a flight attendant for a major domestic airline and in the many years I worked the only time I experienced waiting on the ground in an aircraft with passengers on board was when the airport itself did not allow our aircraft to approach their terminal.
If the Virgin American plane made a weather related landing at an airport in which they were not intending, the problem could have been with the airport not being able or willing to accommodate the process due many reasons; one reason being new security regulations which seem to vary in extremes from one airport to the next.
This is an unfortunate situation that nobody should ever have to experience. As frustrating as it can be, I hesitate blaming a crew who most often is unable to do much more than providing services within the scope of their job description. For a flight attendant, it is to offer passengers comfort while ensuring safety regulations. For a pilot, it is to fly the aircraft as safely as possible.
The last thing a flight crew can do is publicly criticize an airport or their own airline to passengers regardless of how illogical and infuriating these situations can be.
I would guess that the only people who wanted passengers off that plane more than the passengers themselves were the crew members on that flight rationing food and water while scrambling to keep the situation from escalating.
Unfortunately, nobody is ever going to report that side of the story.
Posted by: jillian | March 17, 2010, 3:44 am 3:44 am
There is absolutely no excuse for tormenting these passengers by making them stay on the plane. The authorities should find out who made them stay on the plane and prosecute them for assaulting the passengers.
More failed government. The FAA needs to get off its can and pass some laws here. Once it is on the ground, no passenger should be required to stay on a plane for more than 15 minutes. Planes are horrible overcrowded zoos. But, unfortunately we are forced to fly on our jobs. The FAA also needs to thin out the number of seats allowed on a plane. The overcrowded conditions are totally unsafe. No building on the ground has an occupancy limit that allows the horrible, unsafe overcrowding that we see on planes.
Posted by: Proud Native American and Angry Independent Voter | March 17, 2010, 7:45 am 7:45 am
For all of you who criticize the airline for “tormenting these passengers by making them stay on the plane”, watch the report again. They were given several opportunities to leave the plane.
Posted by: Scott | March 17, 2010, 10:21 am 10:21 am
Virgin America did not support its crew in this situation. A statement should have been released immediately explaining why exactly this happened. When an airplane lands it can’t just drive to the gate, pull up, open the door and let people off-especially when they land at an airport where they don’t have any type of service operation set up. Technically the airport could have them sitting on the runway until they say so or until the weather clears for them to fly to their original destination. Everyone is so quick to compare to other incidents and blame it all on the airline and crew and shame on VIRGIN AMERICA for totally throwing its crews under the bus.
Posted by: Ben A | March 23, 2010, 11:00 am 11:00 am