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[UPDATE] Video: Everything Still Awful At City Airports
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Dec 29, 2010
Modified Dec 29, 2010
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published Dec 29, 2010
Modified Dec 29, 2010
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[UPDATE: Video of an angry mob below] The FAA isn't telling us the whole truth. Their website says that all local airports are operating with departure and arrival delays of "15 minutes or less," but seems to be ignoring the fact that many flights have been stuck on the tarmac for 12 hours at JFK. The Post reports that Jeff Chong was "left to rot" with passengers on a flight from Vancouver because there weren't enough open gates at JFK. But that doesn't compare to the man at risk of missing the Prince show at MSG tonight because he's been stuck at O’Hare since Sunday.
Upper East Side resident John Flannery says he can't find a flight home, and told CBS 2, “It’s very frustrating because I haven’t seen my brother in five years, and I haven’t seen Prince for like 15 years, so I just want to get home. I have a cat at home and I have to arrange to have people feed my cat. It’s a bit of a nightmare." The backlog of 5,000 flights cancelled across New York's three major airports means a lot of people remain stranded, and a Port Authority spokesman claims it's because airlines rushed to dispatch flights without making sure gates were available. But whatever happened, people are still angry. Like these guys:
A few days ago there was a near-riot at JFK's Terminal 4 when they came close to running out of food, and now Air France employees said they're actually scared for their safety! One employee told the Post, "Some of the passengers are getting really rowdy, there is nobody to check the bags, passengers are really cranky. We're very short-staffed. This is the most crowded terminal I've ever seen, this is the volcano." However, the blizzard has given some out-of-towners a taste of the city's blizzard preparedness. One Toronto resident said it "is not impressive. It doesn't seem to be systematic." Hey, our plows are just fine once they get out of the snow.
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