No wonder Virgin Atlantic’s top boss prefers a hot-air balloon.
Passengers aboard a London-to-Newark flight on adventurer Sir Richard Branson’s airline spent more than four hellish hours stuck on a Connecticut tarmac with little water, no air conditioning and no information into the wee hours yesterday.
“There were a lot of screaming babies and a lot of unhappy people,” said Julie Engle, 18, a senior who nearly missed her graduation from Egg Harbor Township HS in New Jersey.
The plane was diverted to Hartford because of thunderstorms. Once on the tarmac at around 8:20 p.m. Tuesday, the misery grew, passengers said. Several had to be removed from the 108-degree cabin and taken away by ambulance.
The rest finally disembarked at 1 a.m., but the two immigration officers on duty didn’t finish processing them until after 3 a.m. Some passengers didn’t get a shuttle bus to Newark until 11 a.m., Virgin said.
The airline “apologized for the inconvenience.”