Two Caribbean Airlines planes that were diverted to Newark Airport on Thursday spent hours on the ground before passengers could disembark, an incident that the airline said was out of its control.
"Caribbean Airlines apologizes to our passengers who went through this ordeal," the airline said.
Both planes took off from Trinidad and were supposed to land at New York's Kennedy Airport, but were diverted to Newark because of poor visibility. The planes landed at 11:20 a.m., but passengers on one jet didn't leave the aircraft until 5 p.m., said Caribbean Airlines. Passengers on the other plane disembarked about 6 p.m., the carrier said.
While on the ground in Newark after landing, the jets prepared to depart for Kennedy after Caribbean Airlines was told that they could take off in two hours, said the carrier. However, the planes had to remain in Newark due to the uncertainty of a takeoff slot from Newark and the ability to land at Kennedy, said Caribbean Airlines.
At that point, Caribbean Airlines said deplaning was further delayed because "many restrictions were placed on us at Newark."
"Both aircraft, which were at remote gates at Newark, were directed to one single contact gate for passenger deplaning," the airline said. "The airline was then informed by authorities that we had to be prioritized since there were 18 other aircraft that were also diverted to Newark."
"Once we were prioritized, we were faced with several restrictions and were told by U.S. authorities that we would have to wait on checks by customs officials before being allowed to disembark or off-load baggage."
Caribbean Airlines said its crew and operations staff did "everything possible to try and get everyone off of the aircraft immediately in order to comply with U.S. Department of Transportation regulations."
A DOT rule introduced earlier this month fines operators of international flights for tarmac delays over four hours, but the rule doesn't go into effect until August.