NEWARK, N.J. — A hot, dark and miserable four-hour stretch spent by hundreds of travelers parked in a diverted trans-Atlantic plane renewed calls Wednesday to add international travel to a months-old federal rule limiting how long airlines can keep passengers trapped on the tarmac.
All of about 300 passengers marooned late Tuesday and early Wednesday at Bradley International Airport outside Hartford, Conn., finally reached their original destination, New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport, by midafternoon, piling off buses and describing chaos and desperation in the cabin as temperatures and tempers rose.
Some passengers fell ill from the heat as the London to-Newark Virgin Atlantic flight lingered on the tarmac, and at least one had to be administered oxygen, said David Cooper, a London resident trying to get to his job at a summer camp. The airline confirmed some travelers needed medical treatment but did not say how many.
“Everyone was beginning to get a bit crazy; a few people got fevers, they were really struggling,” Cooper said. “Basically they cracked. I guess these things do happen, and this time they happened to us.”
A federal three-hour limit on tarmac strandings went into effect in April, eight months after 47 passengers on a Continental Express flight were stranded overnight on a runway in Rochester, Minn.
The limit doesn’t apply to international flights and overseas airlines such as Britain’s Virgin Atlantic, but Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently solicited comments on whether it should. Federal officials will investigate whether the Connecticut stranding violated any rules.
The airline issued a statement Wednesday thanking passengers for their patience, apologizing for any inconvenience and offering vouchers for ground transportation and hotels. It was considering offering “some sort of credit” on tickets, said Chris Rossi, Virgin Atlantic vice president for North America.
Tuesday’s flight began inauspiciously when it was delayed for more than an hour at London’s Heathrow Airport. Storms then diverted it to Bradley, though some passengers said they weren’t told where the plane was heading or why.
The plane sat on the tarmac from about 8:20 p.m. to 1 a.m., passengers said, as the temperature inside the plane rose and darkness permeated the cabin. Travelers said they were offered water but no food.
The temperature outside was no higher than the low 70s, but the weather was humid. Virgin said it was checking into complaints that the air conditioning did not run while the plane was parked.
“After a while people panicked; people started shouting, getting more abusive,” Luke McNorton said as he left one of the buses that shuttled passengers to Newark. “It got a little scary at times; you thought people might get violent.”
New Jersey resident Russell Homasi, returning from visiting friends in London, said that as the plane sat in Connecticut, passengers were told it had been refueled, then were told there was a problem and it couldn’t leave. Virgin was checking into reports of mechanical issues.
Paramedics treated a few passengers, said Ken Cast, an airport operations specialist.
Several passengers said that after being allowed off the flight, they had to wait three or four hours to get through customs.
Bradley’s only regular international passenger flights are to Canada, and Virgin spokesman Janine Doy said the airport had to call customs and immigration officials back to the airport Tuesday night to process the passengers. The airline was forced to keep people on the plane, she said.
A Bradley airport spokesman, John Wallace, said customs workers were at the airport within an hour of being called.
Consumer advocates have pleaded with the Transportation Department to include international flights in the three-hour limit, said passenger-rights advocate Kate Hanni, but were told that wasn’t possible because the department didn’t have data to support such a move.
Information for this article was contributed by Dave Collins of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 06/24/2010