Abandoned: Passengers sleep inside John F. Kennedy International Airport in the early hours of Tuesday after their plane was unable to take off because of the bad weather
Virgin
Atlantic passengers flying from John F. Kennedy International Airport
last night were forced to sit on their plane for six hours before
getting trapped inside the terminal with nowhere to go.
By
the time passengers on the London-bound flight were let off the plane,
roads and public transport had shut down - forcing them to spend the
night.
But
Virgin was not prepared for the ordeal, according to passengers. The
airline said it was unable to get them their luggage and left them with a
$15 meal voucher.
'It
was like a murder mystery suspense movie - no one could give us any
answers,' said one passenger, Alexis Dehasse, a British music producer.
'There was nowhere to go. No food and no water.'
Desperate: The passengers had been unable to get their luggage because of the icy conditions
Going nowhere: An image shows the plane that was thwarted by passenger illness, a technical fault and ultimately the snowstorm - leaving the hundreds of passengers stranded inside JFK on Monday night
Dehasse was supposed to take Flight VS4 to London at 6.30pm but after the passengers were seated on the plane, one traveler became sick and had to be taken off, he said.
Crews then started the de-icing process again and were eventually unable to take off due to the snowstorm. Eventually, passengers were let off the plane after midnight.
Dehasse said he could have stayed with a friend, but road closures meant he was unable to leave.
All vehicles, including taxis, had been ordered off the road by 11pm and public transport, including every subway line, was close to passengers.
He said that the crew from his flight left the passengers so they could sleep on the plane.
'We weren't allowed out. That threat of not being able to leave the airport... it was pretty traumatic,' Dehasse said. 'The whole thing was a mess.'
He added that the staff simply did not know what to do with the passengers.
'They knew what was coming so they should've had extra staff on the ground,' he said. 'They should've had a contingency plan and they didn't. They weren't prepared.'
The company told him that his flight should be leaving later this evening, he said. He is flying to Italy in a couple of days for more shows and fears he will now not be able to take the trip, he said.
Another passenger aboard the flight, Felix Kunze, from Brooklyn, said the airline had only given them each a $15 vouchers for McDonald's, which was the only thing open, NBC reported.
Alone: One passenger said that airport staff seemed ill-prepared for the cancellation in the storm
Anticipation: The passengers can be seen waiting for their plane - but it was unable to go due to the snow
'I have friends who will come get me but they can't because the roads are closed,' he said. 'It was hopeful, hopeful, hopeful right up until the last minute with the most crushing final defeat of horror.'
Helena Shackleton, from Yorkshire, was trying to fly home from a bachelorette party in New York.
'People were really frustrated', she told NBC News. 'Our luggage is still on there because they said there is no one qualified to take it off. It's a complete disaster.'
In a statement, the airline said that they were 'doing everything' they could to help passengers and have provided them with meal vouchers and blankets in the airport.
'The aircraft was due to depart when a passenger required urgent medical attention and returned to the terminal,' it said.
'Subsequently we de-iced the aircraft again and unfortunately it then developed a minor technical issue. Once this issue had been rectified, unfortunately the bad weather combined with the cabin crew running out of hours meant the aircraft was unable to take off.
'Due to the severe weather in the region, there is a road travel ban and therefore customers are unable to leave the airport. We are working very closely with the airport authorities in order to minimise the disruption and we will continue to monitor the weather conditions closely.'
It added that they hope the plane will fly tonight at 6.30pm, depending on weather conditions.
Stranded: In LaGuardia Airport in New York, stranded travelers were supplied with cots so they could sleep
Covered: A passenger's photo shows snowplows as they try to clear the runways at LaGuardia Airport
Miserable: Passengers wait for updates after their flights were canceled amid the snowstorm
In a separate incident, British travelers David and Catherine Haycock, both 37, were nearly stranded after their taxi to JFK airport got a puncture. The couple, from Manchester, England, managed to book themselves on to a different flight to Heathrow.
'It was like a disaster movie at JFK,' Mr Haycock told the London Evening Standard. 'We managed to get the 6.20pm to Heathrow but it took ages to wait to have the ice blown off the plane.'
On Tuesday morning, blanket driving bans were lifted in New York and across New Jersey after the storm, dubbed Juno, failed to live up to its threat.
The storm had threatened to dump 36 inches (3ft) of snow and emergencies were declared in seven states, but by early today, forecasters downgraded most of their numbers, saying New England would fare the worst, but even then not as bad as expected.
As of 5am ET (10am GMT) nearly 9ins had fallen in parts of Long Island, while Central Park had just six inches, prompting the National Weather Service to lift the blizzard warning for the city.
DAILY MAIL