Passengers were kept aboard a hot plane without food, water or air conditioning Tuesday night after their flight from London to Newark was diverted to an airport in Connecticut. The airplane landed near Hartford at 8:20pm, but the passengers were not bused to Newark until 1am. According to the AP, at least three passengers fainted and were treated by paramedics.

CNN has a passenger’s description of the scene:

“It was like four hours on the ground without any air conditioning. It was crazy. Just crazy,” said Willan. “There were babies on the plane. And we are in dark and hot. You try to be patient but people were yelling and screaming.”

There were 300 passengers on the flight. The airline says the delay was caused by the CT airport’s lack of immigration officers.

The airline also told CNN that they are not subject to the new tarmac rule, so they don’t have to worry about being fined $27,500 per passenger.

“That is a U.S. regulation,” an airline spokesman said. “We are a European carrier so we operate under European law. We haven’t infringed any rules.”

Passengers say they were held on hot plane for 4 hours [CNN]
Virgin Atlantic passengers held on tarmac for four hours [USAToday]

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