Jet Blue Boo-Boo

"Well, it's good to be free from there. Especially when the windows were iced over, you're kind of like in a sound-proofed coffin." Carolyn Faucher, JetBlue passenger stranded 8 hours

I've never trusted Jet Blue. I can't explain why exactly. It just seems a brash, inexperienced upstart compared to the big airline companies.

Apparently I'm not totally wrong.

Who lets 100+ people sit in an airplane on the tarmac for 8-10 straight hours? No matter the weather conditions, at the three-hour mark it's time to unload the plane and review options.

But instead, after 11 hours of no food, overflowing toilets, fetid air and justifiably distressed passengers, Jet Blue finally unloaded stranded passengers because ... wait for it ... the crew's flight time had "expired."

You'd think Jet Blue would have done the math before it reached that point. Think about it. They know when the crew's time will expire. They know how long the flight takes once in the air. Why wait until it'll be too late even if the plane eventually takes off?

I don't know about you, but if my pilot's been sitting in a stuffy, overheated, under-ventilated plane with no food or toilet facilities for more than three hours--forget 8 or 10--I don't want him to fly me anywhere.

JetBlue's real sorry about this, of course. Passengers will get refunds and free tickets. JetBlue will write it off on insurance or business taxes. And according to Reuters, "Shares of JetBlue closed 4.7 percent higher Thursday at $13.85 on Nasdaq. Goldman Sachs added JetBlue to its "buy" list saying the carrier's margin expansion would outpace most carriers in 2007."

Okay, buy JetBlue stock. But think twice before you ride their planes.