Over the weekend, a number of planes (JetBlue and American) were unable to land at Newark or JFK, and were instead routed to Bradley "International" in Hartford, Connecticut. There was a surprise snowstorm in the Northeast US at the time. The American plane was coming in from Europe.In what seems an unnecessary fiasco, passengers were kept on the planes for hours, up to 8 according to some reports. The news just didn't have very good information, though, so it's hard to tell what happened.It seems to me that in a situation like that, they could just wheel some stairs out to the plane, let people off and let them walk (or perhaps ride a bus) to the terminal. Yes, it's not standard procedure, but neither is being diverted to another airport a hundred miles away because of a snowstorm. There were probably a couple of inches of snow that had fallen, but nothing plows couldn't handle or a vehicle couldn't drive through with caution.So, why does this happen? Are we so addicted to jetways that we don't even have stairs anymore? Even so, is there some reason that planes can't be pushed back and out of the way to make room for an incoming flight? Is this a "procedural" thing, more related to TSA rules than to making common-sense decisions?

It is puzzling. Certainly buses & stairs are commonly in use at smaller airports so there can't be any reason to leave passengers stewing for hours on a delayed plane. It's possibly nothing more than paranoid, security-based inertia. If the passengers can't leave the plane then nobody but the aircrew needs to take responsibility for them.

I don't know the entire situation, but I believe some of those flights were international flights which require customs clearance. I've seen passengers forced to sit on aircraft for hours waiting for customs agents to arrive to clear the passengers. As far as the domestic flights are concerned, it should be up to the airport authority at BDL to have a plan in place for situations like that.

I would have blown the frekin slide!

It is puzzling. Certainly buses & stairs are commonly in use at smaller airports so there can't be any reason to leave passengers stewing for hours on a delayed plane. It's possibly nothing more than paranoid, security-based inertia. If the passengers can't leave the plane then nobody but the aircrew needs to take responsibility for them.

Your probably right it's based on some stupid security concern.. Like terrorists might have boarded these planes knowing they would get diverted and now when they deplane them with airstairs they can run free at bdl and cause all sorts of mayhem.. Or maybe they will take a few pictures of planes, OMFGIf these were some super duper badass terrorists on these planes when not just skip the plane completely, blow a hole right through a fence, out run the fat tsa agents and blow up a plane. I guess the gestapo did not have any plane spotters to harass that day so instead they kept these poor people on a plane for 8 hours.

OR:Air Traffic Controllers were more concerned about getting some aircraft and the people on board safely on the ground than they were about the readiness of the alternate airport to make the passengers comfortable. Even if they use "International" in their name a lot of airports have considerably fewer tug drivers, fuel truck drivers and baggage handlers on site overnight (if any at all). If ground support personnel had to be called in there might be some delays communicating with supervisory personnel responsible for those tasks at that airport, relaying the need to the actual ground support personnel, and the personnel traveling to the airport in adverse weather conditions. Since many airports normally bring aircraft to the terminal for boarding and disembarking they might not keep buses at the airport and have to contact an off site local charter company on the rare occasions a bus is necessary.

Problem is there usually isn't enough man power and equipment to handle it all.With that said I would've blown the slide as well.

Wonder how they would have coped with the Donner pass snowstorm 100 years ago-they didn't expect that either....8 hours-I was stuck on a Sun Country flight that long in the 80's when they had to divert to Las Vegas instead of Lax due to fog and we spent 8 hours in the plane that night-me still delighted at that time to make the trip out west for 1/2 the cost of the other carriers and still vastly faster than car travel or even horse carriage-but different Times....now I'd be livid...or better a lawsuit...yeah that's the trick.....

Wonder how they would have coped with the Donner pass snowstorm 100 years ago-they didn't expect that either....

If memory serves, there were a couple of groups that got caught on Donner Pass during the Winter... looked like no one was prepared for that epic journey!I just saw a CNN video on this story... it looked like the snow was coming down pretty hard @ BDL so it might have been hard to get stair trucks, etc. out there.Maybe the airlines are afraid that if they let the passengers deplane, then all of a sudden the flight gets Departure clearance, that the gate staff won't be able toget all the passengers back on board the airplane. I don't know...Still, though... the airports and the airlines need to make some sort of accommodations for situations like these; ultimately the passengers have to suffer the most.If a major airline violates the 3 hr. passenger wait rule, the FAA fines the airline $25,000 per passenger. That's a lot of bucks!I heard that in Europe, the domestic airlines have to pay any fines concerning passenger bumping, overbooking, etc. to the customer instead of the government... is that a fact? Wow...Alan

I heard that in Europe, the domestic airlines have to pay any fines concerning passenger bumping, overbooking, etc. to the customer instead of the government... is that a fact? Wow...

It is a fact.http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm