By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — After passengers on a stranded cross-country flight were told by airline staff not to make a federal case out of their 16-hour ordeal, the U.S Department of Transportation has decided that is exactly what’s needed.
The department has opened up an investigation into the hellish Virgin America flight that saw passengers marooned on the tarmac in Upstate New York for up to seven hours after being diverted from JFK Airport.
Curious passengers were told to "shut the hell up" by flight attendants and one had to be removed from the plane by police after suffering a panic attack, MSNBC reported.
The flight, which originally departed from Los Angeles, was scheduled to land Saturday afternoon at Kennedy Airport but was sent instead to Stewart Airport in Newburgh, N.Y., to avoid 60 mile-per-hour winds.
Passengers reportedly waited on the tarmac for seven hours — the airline put it closer to four-and-a-half hours — before ultimately being transported to the city by bus.
Staff rationed out four Pringles potato chips and a half-glass of water each to the passengers after they begged for food, MSNBC reported.
The incident provided advocates an opportunity to call on Congress to pass the proposed “Airline Passenger Bill of Rights,” a measure that would extended additional protections to passengers, including a rule that would force commercial planes to return to the gate after three hours on the tarmac.
“It is essential that we keep the airlines honest and require them to treat passengers as human beings — as they clearly will not do this if left to their own devices," said Kate Hanni, founder of the advocacy group Flyers Rights.
