Stranded - Passengers spend four days at hotel after flight is cancelled

Some passengers of a Caribbean Airlines flight that was scheduled to leave the island at 7:25 p.m. on Saturday on a flight to New York, were yesterday disgruntled after spending four days at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel without being told when they would leave.

The passengers said that they were taken to the hotel on Saturday night after their flight was cancelled. This was after waiting for almost three hours after their departure time.

With no word on when they would depart, a group of them gathered in the hotel's lobby yesterday morning, demanding to speak to representatives of Caribbean Airlines.

Among the group were persons who had to travel to seek medical attention, students who should have started the new school term on Monday, workers who were expected to be back on the job and business owners whose businesses remained closed because they are all stranded in Jamaica.

One of the elderly passengers, who spoke THE STAR, said that she did not wish to reveal her identity because her children back in the United States were not aware of her illness.

"It is not fair to me. This morning 2 o'clock, I had breathing problem, and me have to call downstairs and they send somebody with taxi with me to a doctor," she said.

Another passenger, whose knee was heavily bandaged, said that she needed to return to New York to have it looked at.

"I need to go up to get medical assistance, and I am here from Saturday. What I have to be doing is buy pain tablets from the store, and I went to see the nurse at the hotel and she gave me a bandage," the woman said.

WEARY PASSENGERS

When the Caribbean Airlines representatives were contacted, they said that they agreed to meet with the weary passengers at 10 a.m. yesterday. However, another passenger, Ruddy Campbell, 58, said that they only started to make noise after the time for the meeting had passed and no one from the airline turned up to talk to them.

"We don't want to be here at the Pegasus. We don't want the food. We don't want the tea. We want to go home. My boss is up there mad," Campbell said.

While THE STAR was speaking with the irate passengers around midday, representatives of Caribbean Airlines arrived for a meeting with them.

After the meeting, Campbell told THE STAR that the representatives explained to them they were unaware that they were still at the Pegasus as passengers who were placed at other hotels already left the island. He said that they were told that they would be able to depart on a flight today at 7 a.m.

When THE STAR contacted the communications branch of Caribbean Airlines, we were told that the person authorised to speak to the media was not in office.