Tarmac delays worsen image of Conn. airport

HARTFORD, Conn. -- The headlines were brutal: "126 Trapped on Plane 7 Hours." "Another Fiasco at Bradley."

Passengers on at least four planes sat on the tarmac at Bradley International Airport for seven hours or more Oct. 29 when the autumn snowstorm hit the Northeast, the second time in two years that Bradley made news because passengers were stranded on the tarmac.

Air traffic controllers diverted 28 planes to Bradley because of the storm. Five were able to refuel and take off.

In another storm aftereffect, tens of thousands in the chilly Northeast remained without power, eight days after the storm. Connecticut's largest utility said it wouldn't meet its goal of restoring power to 99 percent of its 1.2 million customers by last night.

For those who were stuck at Bradley, once they deplaned was worse in some ways: Stuck in an airport overnight without heat, and no access to luggage carrying clean clothes and toiletries.

"The airport was very, very cold and there didn't seem to be anyone in charge," said Elizabeth Halasz of Miami, a former flight attendant who had been aboard a JetBlue flight.

The debacle raised anew questions about whether the smaller regional airport is adequately prepared for future storms, when more planes will surely be diverted. The delays touched off more national debate, this time about the need for improved communication between airports and airlines, the type of conversations that determine when passengers can disembark.

Connecticut's flagship airport, located about halfway between the capital, Hartford, and Springfield, Mass., is working to overhaul operations with a new airport authority.

The first problem for Bradley came in June 2010, when about 300 people aboard a diverted trans-Atlantic flight from London to Newark were marooned for four hours. Some fell ill from the heat. The delay prompted calls to add international travel to a federal rule limiting how long airlines can keep passengers on board.

Oct. 29, a JetBlue flight from Florida headed to New Jersey was stranded at Bradley for more than 7 1/2 hours. Halasz said the saga worsened once passengers left the plane. They had to camp out on cots inside the airport, which had no heat and no security.

"For the elderly, they were very frightened," she said.

The only restaurants open were a McDonald's and a Dunkin' Donuts. Both, she said, accepted only credit cards because they had no cash to make change.