The icy snowstorm that hit New York on Valentine's Day triggered a meltdown at JetBlue. The popular discount airline left passengers stranded on the airplane on the tarmac for as long as 11 hours, with no food, drinks and overflowing toilets.
The fiasco resulted in calls for federal regulations, called the Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights, pushed by an ad hoc coalition formed by irate passengers who had collected over 11,000 electronic signatures in a matter of days.
David Neeleman, Founder and CEO of JetBlue, apologized and tried to head off the Feds by issuing their own Customer Bill of Rights, on YouTube no less:
As part of the deal, JetBlue promised to return passengers to the terminal after five hours stuck on the runway. I don't know about you, but five hours seem to be way to long!
Apparently, other people think that it too long too: a bill was introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative Michael Thompson, that will require airplanes to return to the terminal after 3 hours on the runway.