Customs Denies Airlines' Claim That Agency Forbid Passengers To Leave Grounded Plane

  
Pilot on Virgins flight says customs told them they could release passengers






  

    

      
By Lucy Nalpathanchil - WNPR

      
Published: Jun 24, 2010

    

    

                      

    

                  
          
    

          

      

	Virgin Atlantic Airways says its pilot asked for permission to unload passengers stranded on a grounded plane in Connecticut but a customs official threatened to have them arrested if they got off the plane. Customs deny that claim. 



	Greg Dawson, a London spokesman for the airline, said the flight's captain was told by a customs official at Bradley International Airport Tuesday night that passengers couldn't get off the plane until more immigration officials arrived. 



	 



	But Ted Woo, spokesman for Customs and Border Protection at Boston's field office, says the customs staff was on hand to process the 300 passengers. 



	 



	"The plane was on the tarmac and was not at a gate.  And transportation had to be provided to get those people from the airplane to the terminal. And that is something the airline and the airport is responsible for."



	 



	Woo also says the customs officer on duty never spoke to the Virgins pilot. 



	The flight from London to Newark, N.J., was diverted to Connecticut due to poor weather. Some passengers passed out on the hot plane while they waited for four hours to disembark. 



	For NPR news, I'm Lucy Nalpathanchil in Hartford

    



  
 
  

    

      

                        
              

            

 
        

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