NEW YORK (WPIX)—
What was supposed to be a direct flight from Los Angeles to New York's JFK airport over the weekend turned into a 16-hour nightmare for passengers aboard a Virgin America plane.Flight 404 departed California at 10:34 a.m. EST on Saturday and was due to land in Queens at 3:35 p.m. However, due to the brutal nor'easter that slammed the Tri-State area over the weekend with torrential rains and gusting winds of up to 60 mph, the flight was diverted to Stewart Airport in upstate New York, which is located about 90 miles north of the city.
From there, the plane was apparently stuck on the tarmac for at least 4.5 hours -- however some passengers -- including the likes of "Dancing with the Stars" Judge Carrie-Ann Inaba -- claim they were parked there for a much longer period of time.
Virgin America officials say passengers were ultimately transported by bus by rival airline Jetblue, who happen to have facilities at Stewart Airport. As a result, passengers finally made it to New York City by 2 a.m. Sunday.
The harrowing ordeal left many of the stranded people outraged. Some passengers claim the flight crew grew increasingly impatient and began snapping at people.
David Martin, CEO of Kontain.com, said one of the flight attendants told a passenger to 'shut the hell up' and that they were getting on their "nerves." In addition, Martin says the crews were not handling the dreadful situation well at all.
Martin, who incidentally heads a social media company that specializes in video updates for users, documented a good portion of the drama that unfolded while passengers' frustrations grew. The buzz generated by Martin's video updates got the attention of blogs and cable news networks who later made the story headline news.
Martin wasn't the only one who took to social media as many restless passengers logged on to Facebook and Twitter to talk about their ordeal.
A woman on the plane, identified as Uana Coccooni, reportedly wrote, "Can't get off, they won't taxi to the terminal so that we can get out, no food and we are going to JFK no matter what time it is....it can't be okay to have people sitting on the plane for 4 hours and what will likely be many more. Aren't there laws about this? VA gets a big thumbs down today," she posted.
As if that wasn't bad enough, starving passengers claim they were only given a half-cup of water and four Pringles -- as crews were forced to ration items in order to make sure they had enough for everyone aboard.
Virgin America CEO David Cush sent an apology letter Tuesday to each of the passengers and promised to refund their fares, with an additional $100 credit.
