Don't get me wrong I agree that the people should have been deplaned when it became apparent that the flight wasn't going anywhere for a long while.

Beeen there done that, except it was a thunderstorm instead of a blizzard, and we pretty much emptied the service carts and gave all the snacks and drinks/water to the folks as they were waiting in the terminal.

I completely agree that there are folks who could suffered more than just the normal pain of sitting in a modern day airline seat, and the situation was completely unnacceptable.

I have a hard time believing the snow was falling so hard that it was impossible to get these folks off these aircraft. Somebody dropped the ball somewhere and just let this happen.

You can get a lot done with a phone call to the right people, for example I got a taxiway closed in less than 30 min when the company I was working for at the time was repainting all the lines on the ramp and somebody forgot to talk to the airport admin people about it.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jetblue...=MW_latest_news October, weekend, snowstorm
Weekend snowstorm. Say it fast three times

I wonder how much of this goes back to the logistics available at that airport, on a weekend, during a snowstorm with a whole lot of airplanes that landed there by necessity and a lot of other aircraft that didn't leave as scheduled.

Was all the equipment they would have in winter to move snow and de-ice aircraft available in October?

I have serious problems with the idea of being "trapped" in a perfectly good airplane that's sitting on the ground. I would have personally volunteered to risk life and limb to hop down to the ground and go find a stepladder to borrow from maintenance.

Call it out of the box thinking, but is it really that far out of the box?

Yuck. Not a good situation. I also think it's ridiculous that they couldn't seem to find a way to get those people off the plane and back to the airport for a delay like that. 7 hours? I once was stuck in a plane sitting on the tarmac for three hours in Toronto because of thunderstorms, and that was no fun, despite having a water bottle and some trail mix with me as well as books and headphones to entertain myself. Thankfully it was not a full flight, so nobody was sitting next to me and there were no screaming babies or obnoxious passengers, or the situation would have been far less tolerable. The suggestion someone had about earplugs is not a bad idea, although I am always uncomfortable wearing them in situations where a bunch of random strangers are around and I'm not traveling with anyone I know. At least with headphones one can still hear their surroundings if necessary.

Maybe you have not been on a flight in a while or watched the news, but that plan would have been been more in the box rather than out of the box. The box I'm referring to is a cold jail cell. They might not have been able to get mobile stairs to the plane to relieve the suffering of the passengers, but I guarantee a nice federal agent with bracelets would have been waiting at the gate for you if you deployed the slide without the authorization of the flight crew and that authorization would not be given without an emergency.

I am surprised that no one opened one of the emergency doors and slid down the emergency exit slide.

I can't go that long without several pee breaks and I would have been going crazy by then.

David Enoch

This may be a stupid question and if so, sorry. Why in the world wouldn't the bathrooms function? I've been on flights that lasted at least that long and there wasn't a problem. I too have been stuck on the Tarmac for several hours because of thunderstorms. I don't recall there being a problem getting up to the bathroom, but maybe I'm mistaken. It has been a while. Bit of a head scratcher for me.

LW

I don't know anything about this particular incident that isn't in this thread, I've been on many planes that had bathrooms that were out of service.

Not a definitive answer, but just guessing, based on what I know about how airplane toilets work. And assuming there isn't some mechanical issue, like a clog, that can knock out the system--

The modern vacuum system used on airplanes uses a separate reservoir of fluid used with each flush. The fluid doesn't come from the holding tank, as it does on older systems. Once that reservoir is dry, it is difficult to flush any solid waste. The conjecture part of my answer is that the vacuum pump may actually shut down when the flushing fluid runs dry, so even liquid waste may not be "flushable" at that point.

I guess the other logical answer is that the system shuts down once the holding tanks are full and can't accept any more waste.

Do you think? Perhaps I was not clear. For the reason you mentioned, I wouldn't dare exit the plane in an unauthorized manner unless there was a true life threatening emergency. The inconvenience of being a virtual prisoner on a plane through no fault of your own would be better than being an actual prisoner who is guilty. So, let me try again:

"The flight crew and airport staff need to think outside of the box. Why not disarm the emergency slide and open the door so someone can go borrow a #$%@ step ladder?"

My point is that it is not impossible to more or less safely exit an aircraft without a jetway. If the only thing stopping them from letting you off is that it is not "normal" then I would be very frustrated.