Nightmare LA-to-NY Flight Turns Into 16-Hour Ordeal

(March 16) -- Passengers on a Virgin America flight from Los Angeles to JFK airport in New York were delayed on a tarmac at an airport 80 miles away for nearly seven hours last weekend while the airline waited for winds to die down. At one point, food was so low that the flight crew rationed the passengers four potato chips and a half cup of water each. The cross-country trip that should have taken 5½ hours instead lasted about 16 by the time passengers were bused to JFK, the New York Post reports.

"This definitely ranks up there with the worst," Kate Hanni, executive director of FlyersRights.org, told AOL News. "It's the worst one of the year."

Abby Lunardini, director of corporate communications for San Francisco-based Virgin America, told AOL News that passengers on Flight 404 were allowed to leave the plane if they wanted, but they would not be allowed back on if they chose that option. In all, 20 passengers decided to get off the plane before the flight was canceled.

Virgin America CEO David Cush promised to refund the 126 passengers of Flight 404 and give each of them a $100 credit.

But the price of the delay could have been much worse. On April 29 the Department of Transportation's "Passenger's Bill of Rights" rule is slated to go into effect, requiring airlines to let their passengers off the plane after three hours on the tarmac and allowing the government to fine carriers up to $27,500 per passenger if they do not. Airlines are requesting an extension before the rule takes effect.

"The total compensation is probably less than if they had been bumped from a flight," Hanni said. "They're getting off pretty cheap for this."

A bill sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., would make the DOT rule a law, mandating fines for offending airlines. Airlines have said that the law will lead to more canceled flights as the companies try to avoid the fines.

"I mean long tarmac delays are extremely rare," Continental Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek said at a conference this month. "They do occasionally occur, there's no question about it. But having a rule that requires us to cancel flights at three hours or suffer a fine of $27,500 per passenger is inane. And so what we do in the face of a fine like that is we're going to cancel a lot of flights."

On Saturday, Flight 404, having left Los Angeles at 7:10 a.m. PST, circled JFK for two hours before being diverted to Stewart Airport in Newburgh, N.Y., due to high winds. The plane landed at Stewart at 5:30 p.m EST., according to Virgin America. Passengers and the airline dispute the amount of time the plane was on the tarmac. Passengers say they didn't disembark until close to midnight, while Virgin America says they made the decision to cancel the flight at 10 p.m. and passengers were let off around 10:45.

During that time, one passenger had a panic attack and had to be taken off the plane. Another passenger, David Martin, the CEO of social networking site Kontain.com, posted updates and tweeted about the incident. At a certain point, the stress took its toll on the crew as well.

"One guy said he had a question, and the flight attendant started shouting at this guy, 'You are really getting on my freaking nerves! You need to shut the hell up!'" Martin told the Post.

A day after the incident, Cush called Martin after seeing his posts and promised the refund and credit. He also called several other passengers to apologize as well, according to Lunardini.

"After reviewing the particular circumstances of this diversion, we agreed that we needed to have done a better job with communicating a difficult situation to our guests," Lunardini wrote in an e-mail to AOL News.

Ironically, it was Jet Blue -- which has one of the worst records for delays, according to FlyersRights.org -- that eventually came to the rescue, arranging for a bus to drive the passengers to JFK. They arrived there at 2 a.m. Sunday -- just in time to set their watches forward to 3 a.m. for daylight saving time.