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Getting Back in the Air; Jon Stewart and Journalism; Plane Stays on Tarmac After 12 Hours; Captured by the Taliban

Aired December 28, 2010 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sunshine and warmer weather's ahead, but the damage from the holiday snowstorm, it's not yet done. It could last into the new year. It will take days to clear the backlog of canceled airline flights from the three major airports serving New York City alone. The impact of that reaches far beyond the northeast, and we will give you some examples in a moment.

First, let's take a look at the numbers. Well, parts of New Jersey are digging out from 32 inches of snow. It's not just the drifts, more than 5,000 people -- also another number -- they have been stranded, their flights canceled since Sunday. Some stranded passengers not apparently going to take off until Friday.

Hundreds of passengers who flew in from other countries landed overnight at New York's JFK Airport, only to sit for hours on the snowy tarmacs. One plane still has not made it to the gate after 12 hours on the ground.

Tracking all of this for us is Chad Myers.

It seems incredible that the airport would be in sight and these poor people can't even get off.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: There is just not enough people working today because people can't get to their jobs. They can't get a cab. They can't get a car. The trains are so delayed, they can't get on.

And so you have all these people in need of workers to get off the plane. You have to get your bags. You have to take your bags to Customs. And Customs has to get you through. There's a whole process.

And if you don't have people to get you to the gate or run your jet way to get you off, you're going to stuck. And if your plane that's trying to get to gate 2 already has a plane in gate 2, and it's not leaving, you're sitting there waiting for that plane that was before you to get out of the way or move you to a new gate. We know that most of the gates are completely full.

So there you go. This is what you have.

JFK, 77 flights in bound right now. That's pretty good. That's a pretty good number. Not what it could be, not what it should be, but pretty good.

LaGuardia, not quite so good, only 47 planes inbound to you. Newark, 62.

Now, in contrast, let's go to Atlanta -- 153 planes inbound to Atlanta. That's kind of what the numbers should be for some of these northeast corridor airlines. We should have more planes on the ground.

We do know -- and we're talking about LaGuardia --and I know Allan Chernoff is there as well.

FEYERICK: Right. He's here.

MYERS: A lot of planes have been cancelled.

FEYERICK: Unbelievable.

MYERS: And even though they'll have the same full schedule, it's not.

FEYERICK: You know, the point that you raised earlier in the live shot, we actually have somebody on the line that we're going to toss to, and that is Steve Coleman. He's with the Port Authority, and he is the one who is going to talk about why a plane that is on the tarmac with people on it, those people cannot get off the plane.

Steve Coleman, are you there?

STEVE COLEMAN, PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY (via telephone): I'm here.

FEYERICK: Hey, Steve. Nice for you to join us today.

I want to ask you a question. Why can't these poor people get off that plane given that that plane is on the ground?

COLEMAN: Because what happened in this case is that the airline did not check before they got to the airport whether they were going to have a gate to put these people. They don't have the staffing, they don't have the gate to put the planes. So without that, that's -- they're out on the tarmac.

What I can tell you is that our general manager at JFK has spent his entire morning trying to find a gate for these people even though it has nothing to do with his responsibility. It's strictly an airline responsibility and they didn't fulfill that responsibility.

FEYERICK: Steve, should that plane have been diverted someplace else once they found out that there wasn't enough staff?

COLEMAN: They could have asked the FAA to divert them someplace else, but they didn't do that. They sent them to JFK. There was no gate to put them. We have been trying for hours now to find another gate for them, but obviously, most of the gates at JFK are full right now. FEYERICK: When you say that there is no gate to put them, isn't there -- they have those moveable stairwells. Couldn't a couple people have gotten together and brought one out to the plane?

COLEMAN: We could have done that, but these are international passengers, and international passengers have to be screened at international terminals. So the best you could have done is put a staircase and put them in some kind of a holding pen somewhere, which is not the optimal situation.

FEYERICK: Would that holding tent though have been inside? Would it be some place in the building, a secure area, perhaps?

COLEMAN: Well, once again, these airlines should have checked before they came to the airport whether there was a gate to accommodate them. And they did not do that.

FEYERICK: OK. So now the airlines are basically -- I guess their argument -- we are trying to reach out to Cathay Pacific, which is one of the planes. Their argument being, look, we were destined to arrive, you would have thought somebody would have greeted us.

But are there other planes in that situation right now on the tarmac?

COLEMAN: I believe it's just the Cathay Pacific flights that are affected right now.

FEYERICK: OK. All right.

So, Steve, in the future -- I mean, obviously, when it comes to a snowstorm, nobody can foresee how bad it's going to be, how quickly people are going to be able to mobilize. We know that everybody's doing the best job they can under very difficult circumstances, but still, there's got to be a level of frustration, perhaps also on your part, over the fact that you can probably see that plane and understand just how unhappy those people are.

COLEMAN: Obviously. And I can see that people would be unhappy sitting on a plane that long, but at the same point, I think the airline's got to take some responsibility to make sure that they have a gate to park a plane and they have staff to deal with that plane once it arrives at an airport, whether it's one of our airports or whether it's one of somebody else's airports.

And I can give you another anecdotal information here. At LaGuardia, we just had three planes come in with no gates to park, and our staff spent several hours finding gates, calling every airline at LaGuardia to make sure that we could put those planes at a gate. So, once again, we're taking on the responsibility that's generally something that belongs to the airlines.

FEYERICK: And just so I know, Steve, just as we wrap, is it that there are no gates because grounded planes are at those gates? Or is it that there are no gates because there's nobody there working those gates? COLEMAN: I think it's a combination of both. I think there's no gates because there's nobody working the gates, and there's no gates because planes are still parked there, you know, waiting to depart or trying to get back on some kind of schedule.

FEYERICK: OK.

Steve Coleman from the Port Authority in New York.

We really appreciate your joining us. Thank you so much. We'll check in with you a little later.

We're going to turn now to Elise Zeiger. Elise Zeiger is a CNN colleague, a producer, who is out there also.

And Elise, you spoke to a woman who was stranded on the tarmac, couldn't get off that plane.

ELISE ZEIGER, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: That's right, Deb. I had actually talked to many passengers who were in that similar situation. Not only were they delayed getting into JFK, but once they did get here, they were sitting on the tarmac for hours and hours, many of them with no food or very little water.

And once they did get released and into the gate, they now have been waiting and waiting and waiting for their baggage. That's been the biggest problem.

I'm actually here with one of those passengers who has been waiting probably six, seven hours now for his bags or any information about his bags. His name is Donald Nicholson. He was on an Air France flight this morning.

Here you go. Here's Don.

DONALD NICHOLSON, AIR FRANCE PASSENGER: Hello there.

FEYERICK: Hi. Well, first of all, sir, what was it like? People must have been -- to stay on a plane for that long had to be a little claustrophobic, no?

NICHOLSON: Yes. It's really just frustrating, and it's been a kind of chaos.

There has been very little communication between the (INAUDIBLE), some of them saying one thing, others saying another thing. And it just feels as if they're trying to locate the person to come to them and not actually tell them the honest truth, which is always frustrating.

(INAUDIBLE). We were sort of told, first of all, that -- we had our hopes raised by being told that they had actually found the luggage (INAUDIBLE). And we were then quickly told, no. Actually, that's not the case. It's located (INAUDIBLE), or something, which sounds pretty bizarre. I'm sure that there are legitimate reasons for them saying that, but now we have been told and we are being told that, no, sorry. We'll (INAUDIBLE) will be able to be uploaded and passed on to you.

FEYERICK: Right.

NICHOLSON: So, I'm here in the greatest city in the world without toiletries, without a change of clothing, wearing the clothing I've had on since yesterday morning, when I left Scotland. And really, it's making for a challenging vacation.

FEYERICK: Welcome to New York. Welcome to New York, sir. It can only get easier from here.

Just a yes or no answer -- have you found people who are helpful, that they care, or do you sort of find hands up in the air, shrugging of the shoulders out there?

NICHOLSON: Well, as I said, quite a lot of them just want to say something to appease you and hope that you will go away. And some of them -- I must admit, I have been obviously naturally quite frustrated and lost my anger on a few occasions with some of them. And for them, I do genuinely apologize.

And some (ph) have been quite nasty back to us, which is really unprofessional. But there has been one woman in particular who is a real absolute gem. Her name is Rima (ph), and she has been really helpful. She talks to you and explains things to you. She reassures you without trying to patronize you, and she just tells you the truth.

FEYERICK: OK. Well, it's personal service, absolutely. And I think the truth -- and obviously when people are dealing professionally with other people, that's really sort of the brunt of making a bad situation good.

Mr. Nicholson, thank you so much. We really do hope you get your bag. We really do hope you get your toiletries. And more importantly, we hope you have a great time here. It's a lot of fun once you get past all the hard stuff.

Anyway, thank you.

We're going to turn now to Kate Hanni. She has made flyers' rights her life's work. She's a realtor (ph) in Napa, California, who started flyersrights.org after spending nine hours on a tarmac in Texas about five years ago.

And you're joining us today from San Francisco.

Kate, you know what this man is going through. Is there a way to fix it? Do passengers' rights matter when it comes to natural disasters?

KATE HANNI, FOUNDER, FLYERSRIGHTS.ORG: Well, they do matter on domestic flights, but they apparently don't matter on international flights. And when I was listening to the gentleman from the Port Authority talking about what they can and can't do in terms of gates. They do have common use gates they can give that airline.

Of course, they do need staff to run the gates. But they have an international terminal there at JFK, JFK's terminal 4. And they can run buses out and the portable stairs like you were suggesting, which is exactly what they offered to do when JetBlue had their meltdown four years ago.

So there is no excuse and there should be no blame going back and forth between the airports and the airlines. They should simply be figuring out how to get these people taken care of.

We tried to get pizzas inside the airport the night before last. We ordered pizzas, and there was no one we could reach at the Port Authority that could get the pizzas through security to the people in the El Al terminal.

So there's a lot of suffering going on, and we have a hotline. We're here to help people. Unfortunately, we can't put the food in their mouths. We're trying.

You k now, but people, they are frustrated. And it really is something that we ought to be embarrassed about in the U.S., that we don't have contingency plans at the airports. The airports were not required to have contingency plans in our rule, and that's a mistake. We need to fix that.

FEYERICK: Kate, and do you think that one of the ways to fix that is for the airport facilities, the airlines themselves, to have sort of an ad hoc committee to address these issues so that people aren't standing around pointing the finger at one another, relying on the good will of somebody who can actually think outside the box?

HANNI: You just nailed it. When I was on the Tarmac Delay Task Force, the biggest conversation that we had was all about situational awareness and that there needed to be teams of people that work for TSA, Border Patrol, the airport, the airline, and the FAA, all in communication with each other so that they could coordinate appropriately to get people off of planes.

Each airport has to have a team, and they have to communicate with each different body in order to get these folks off and get them taken care of. The priority should always be the passengers' safety. And I guarantee you, it's not safe to have people, especially when seven out of every 100 people is diabetic, you have got a lot of compromised health going on, on these flights that needs to be taken care of, and they can't possibly take care of themselves at this point.

FEYERICK: Sure. It could certainly get a lot worse.

HANNI: Yes.

FEYERICK: All right. Well, Kate Hanni, thank you so much.

People are going to have to think about what's going on. Maybe somebody is taking notes and maybe we'll see perhaps a different outcome should there be another snowstorm later on this winter.

Kate Hanni, thank you so much for joining us.

We're going to be checking in at LaGuardia airport. We have got some people there. We are monitoring the situation. And we're keeping our fingers crossed for all of you out there that you're going to get on your way maybe soon.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: So let's go now to New York's LaGuardia Airport and CNN's Allan Chernoff.

Allan, boy, anywhere close to business as usual? Where are we, 40 percent, 50 percent, 60 percent, 20?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Deb, a big improvement. I just received an e-mail update from the general manager at LaGuardia Airport. During the past hour, they've handled 48 flights total. That compares to a typical hourly number of about 70.

That is though a huge increase from this morning. During the first six hours of the day, he said they handled, in total, only 100 flights. So they are really stepping it up, but they're not close to getting back to normal.

You have been talking about the gates over the past few minutes. Let me just add a little more information with regard to that.

I spoke just a little while ago with an American Airlines pilot. He flew in from Hartford to LaGuardia Airport here. That is a hop. That is maybe a half hour flight, not even. He said he waited an hour and a half to get to a gate over here.

The fact is, there are limited gates. One reason is that there is so much snow out there.

They have been shoveling that snow. It's got to be piled up somewhere. And over here, they do pile it by some gates, and then they put them into snow melters. It can't happen instantly.

They are doing an absolutely incredible job of clearing out the runways, the taxiways, the gate areas here. I actually can see pavement there right now. That's incredible.

Having said all of that, it's not all good news, because we do have some people who have been terribly, terribly delayed. I have one right here.

Nancy came to the airport expecting that she was going to get on a flight. In fact, she has an e-mail here from American Airlines, came just about two hours ago, tells us that the flight was on time.

And then what happened, Nancy? You got to the gate and what? You got to the ticket counter?

NANCY DUGDALE, STRANDED PASSENGER: We walked basically into the airport and went to the kiosk to get our boarding passes. And they would not give us the boarding passes. And within that three-minute time, we looked back up on the screen and it said the flight had been canceled.

CHERNOFF: This, after the airline had told you the flight was on?

DUGDALE: On our way to the airport, the flight was on.

CHERNOFF: And you're trying to get to North Carolina -- Charlotte. What's the game plan now?

DUGDALE: We're going to rent a car. I mean, we're just thankful that we have another mode of transportation. A lot of people don't have that option.

CHERNOFF: Because they had told you the next flight you would be able to catch would be when?

DUGDALE: Not until December 31st.

CHERNOFF: Wow.

DUGDALE: Yes. So we're thankful we have another mode of transportation that we can --

CHERNOFF: All right. Well, we wish you a safe drive.

DUGDALE: Thank you.

CHERNOFF: That probably, Deb, would have been a good idea for a lot of the other travelers, the people who have been stranded here at the airport for several days.

FEYERICK: Absolutely.

CHERNOFF: Most of them would have gotten to their destinations faster if they had driven.

FEYERICK: Yes, probably. Imagine that. Although let's -- in all due fairness, perhaps some of the roads are not as passable as one might think.

But anyway, Allan Chernoff, thank you so much. We'll let you go and speak to some more people. Thanks a million.

And right now, in Maine, a rescue operation is wrapping up at the Sugarloaf Mountain Ski Resort. A ski lift malfunctioned, left about 200 people stuck about 30 feet above the slope. Most of the skiers were lowered down by ropes.

Take a look at this. A CNN colleague was among them. He says several people were thrown off the lift. And you can see the perspective there of those on the lift and those on the ground. At least eight injuries are reported.

Again, one of our CNN colleagues who -- well, I guess he thought he was going to have a fun, uneventful vacation, but it turned out there's always news. You just have to look for it. We wish those people well.

Now, Jon Stewart, OK, he spends a lot of time telling people he's a comedian, not a journalist. "The New York Times," however, thinks otherwise, and we're going to have that story coming up next in our NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: So you kind of have to wonder what went through Jon Stewart's mind when he picked up "The New York Times" yesterday morning and "The Daily Show" host who is constantly telling people he's a comedian, not a journalist, despite being the preferred news source for an ever-growing number of young viewers, Stewart's presence and, arguably, his authority has been rising steadily over the last two years, since 2009, when "TIME" magazine called him the "Most Trusted News Anchor in America."

Now, if you thought it couldn't get better, think again. "The New York Times" now suggesting that Stewart may be the second coming of Edward R. Murrow. Murrow, the famed CBS anchor and journalist who questioned the communist Red Scare of the 1950s. He is often credited with triggering the downfall of Senator Joe McCarthy.

The comparison comes after Stewart challenged Republican senators for blocking the 9/11 first responders bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": The House of Representatives passed it, and it would pass in the Senate if it came to an up-or-down vote. They have more than the 50 votes they need, but the Senate Republicans have filibustered it.

This is an outrageous abdication of our responsibility to those who were most heroic on 9/11.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: Even the White House realized Stewart's voice might be a turning point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I hope he can convince two Republicans to support taking care of those that took care of so many on that awful day in our history. It seems at the end of a long year around the holiday season --

(END VIDEO CLIP) FEYERICK: Well, apparently, he was successful because the bill passed last week. Many say Stewart was instrumental in goading Republicans to vote for the bill.

So we have two people to talk about it. Pete Dominick, a CNN contributor, comedian, Sirius XM radio host and former warm-up act for "The Daily Show," he's joining us via Skype. Oh, no, he's joining us there, via New York, our studio there, to talk about it.

PETE DOMINICK, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, yes.

FEYERICK: And we also have a professor who's going to be joining us on the phone, Professor Thompson.

First of all, Pete, I'm going to go to you.

It seems that Jon Stewart simply called out the hypocrisy of those trying to block the 9/11 bill. Does that make him a journalist or does that make him a crusader?

DOMINICK: Right now Jon Stewart is sitting somewhere on vacation laughing this whole comparison off. You know, he oftentimes gets this question, I get this question as a comedian who also worked for him.

And, you know, journalists, as the professor can define, is not what we do as standup comedians. There's a sign over the entrance of "The Daily Show" that says, "All ye who enter this building, abandon news" or something like that.

I mean, Jon and myself and other comedians, we get to a point in our career where we realize, hey, we have a lot more people watching, listening. And I think you take a certain amount of responsibility with that.

And in this case, he wanted to shed some light on an issue that a lot of the mainstream media wasn't covering. He has the ability to do that at times, and he took advantage of that ability. That's what he did.

And that's what he sometimes does. He sometimes slips that in. That's my opinion. But to call him a journalist, I think he'll be the first to laugh that one off -- Deb.

FEYERICK: Well, you know, we want to go to Professor Thompson, Robert Thompson from Syracuse University. We have got him on the phone. And he's the one who sort of initially suggested that maybe he is Edward R. Murrow.

What was the link there that you see? Is it just his ability to maybe turn people's compasses perhaps in a different direction?

PROF. ROBERT THOMPSON, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: Yes. Well, the only comparison -- I mean, no, Jon Stewart is not Edward R. Murrow, he is not Walter Cronkite. He is not the next Edward R. Murrow or the next Walter Cronkite. And I agree, he is not a journalist, nor are all these bloggers that call themselves citizen journalists. To me, a journalist has got to have been trained in some of the complex professional skills of what journalism is.

But all of that having been said, the comparison I think that I make and that many make between what Stewart did with this whole first responders thing, and what Cronkite did with his Vietnam editorial, and what Murrow did with McCarthy, is that in a way that surprised many people, they took a certain medium -- in Jon Stewart's case, a comedy parody show; in these other cases, news and journalism shows -- and they really emotionally and effectively advocated a certain position that ended up having a significant impact on the way many people thought about that position.

FEYERICK: Now, Pete, one thing -- I want you to comment on that, but I also want to ask you, is it just that Jon Stewart can stand up and, in the 30-minute show, basically say stop the craziness, cut it out, knock it off? I mean, it's like sort of moderating a temper tantrum.

DOMINICK: Yes. And this might be a provocative thing to say, and I don't mean it so -- and I know, Deb, you have won awards as a journalist, and this isn't about you or anybody. Sometimes I wonder if journalists get jealous of we, as comedians, what we're able to do. The freedom that we have journalists don't really have.

So, sometimes we can do a little bit of journalism, we can cover issues in a way and in a fashion that journalists can't get away with, and we do that. We take advantage of that. Some of us do.

But I will add this -- as the professor just mentioned Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, both those guys worked for CBS. And as Jon Stewart pointed out, and as Brian Stelter, who I like, at "The New York Times" points out, CBS really didn't cover this issue, where Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite once worked, this issue of the 9/11 responders bill.

And Jon Stewart and Comedy Central and "The Daily Show" did shed some light. And as we gear up to commemorate 9/11 every year, we should also be commemorating and talking about this issue, the guys who responded and what they need.

FEYERICK: So I want to ask Professor Thompson this question first, and then I'm going to go back to you, Pete.

Networks are run like a business. And profits, there's a bottom line, there are people that you have to answer to. Playing devil's advocate, 9/11 can wear people down. People -- you know, life is tough enough, and to be constantly reminded -- and again, playing devil's advocate, do you think that maybe networks are making decisions because they just want to give people a break?

And is that the right thing? Is that fair?

THOMPSON: Well, maybe yes and maybe no. I mean, it depends on where you look. If you look at the cable 24 hours news network, people are doing this advocacy stuff and outrage and talking about 9/11 all the time.

I think what's really different here -- and it is true. I think these legit journalists on TV are jealous of the latitude that comedians have, but the big difference is Jon Stewart and a few others are actually now using this in an interesting civic way.

When I was growing up, we had Johnny Carson. He told jokes about politics, but they certainly weren't political jokes. We had Chevy Chase making fun of Gerald Ford by falling down a lot.

What Jon Stewart has done -- and a few others -- is to take this opportunity that comedy has and to really begin to use it in serious sorts of ways, to turn comedy into the fifth estate like journalism is the fourth estate. And I think that's a really important, different change in the state of affairs.

FEYERICK: Absolutely. Sort of listening to this seriousness.

The old saying -- Pete, I will get to you on this -- every joke is serious, there's always something that's real, that people are trying to make a point. And do you think --

DOMINICK: Sure.

FEYERICK: When you think about this, Pete, is it just, yes, journalists want to be funny and maybe we're not that funny most of the time because we're too busy being serious? But I'm wondering, does Jon just have a latitude that perhaps others don't have in terms of being a comedian?

DOMINICK: Yes. He does, absolutely.

He also has a lot of viewers. And he does -- you know, we have a huge amount of latitude as comedians. We can get away with a lot more than anybody anchoring on CNN or CBS.

But let me go back to your point about the idea of deciding what to cover and what to discuss and ratings. I mean, yes, it wears people down to hear about 9/11, but we are the news. We need to tell people what's going on.

And in Jon's case, it was his opinion, and we can look back through records. In his opinion, the news wasn't covering an issue that needed to be covered, and so he took an opportunity to do it on "The Daily Show."

And there was some comedy involved there, but he's saying there wasn't. There was. You have got to pay attention and look at it in context.

So I think it's important to cover this issue. And that's why I think Jon wanted to.

FEYERICK: Right. Well, Pete Dominick, Robert Thompson, thank you both so very much for joining us on this.

For more on the story, tune in at 3:00 p.m. Don Lemon is going to talk to one of the authors of "The New York Times" article, Brian Stelter.

We're going to be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: Well, we were going to talk to Cathay Pacific now. We have been trying to get them on the phone for some time. Theirs is the plane stuck on the tarmac out at JFK Airport. It's been there since 2:15 in the morning, when it landed.

We spoke to somebody from the port authority who said that apparently they shouldn't have landed, that there wasn't a gate, that there wasn't personnel. Well, Cathay Pacific was listening and they are on the phone with us now.

First of all, the gentleman's name: Gus Whitcomb -- thank you so much for calling in. What is going on with that plane? Are those passengers off? They have been on for almost 12 hours.

GUS WHITCOMB, CATHAY PACIFIC SPOKESMAN (via telephone): Yes, good afternoon, Deborah. Yes, they actually are at the gate and actually are deplaning at this particular moment. And they certainly did have a very uncomfortable experience. The plane did land early this morning, was not able to deplane until this point.

FEYERICK: Let me ask -- when obviously somebody must have guided that plane in, air traffic control, for example. Would they have routed the plane to a different location had they known that there was no gate for these people?

WHITCOMB: Well, I'm not sure how this exact situation transpired but really, to be honest with you, it doesn't do any good to point fingers at anybody. The reality is that we had a flight that landed, stayed on the tarmac far too long. We've inconvenienced our passengers and we're going to try to do what we can to make it right for them.

FEYERICK: OK. What does that mean? I mean, right now, people are a little bit frustrated to be so close, to be looking at the terminal from your window, and not be able to get off that plane. How do you make that right?

WHITCOMB: Well, again, it's going to be a heartfelt apology and followed by something tangible. But I think, you know, it's a very fluid situation at JFK. Everybody, the port authority, the FAA, the airlines are all trying to do their best. You've got, you know, some very difficult conditions out there, some very fluid movements with crew times, with plane availability, with gate availability. Everybody is trying their best to do what they can.

Unfortunately, this particular flight did not go as planned.

FEYERICK: And, Mr. Whitcomb, what though is the airport's responsibility in all of this? Should they have had a gate? Should they have had some emergency go team to bring a ladder there? Should they have made arrangements through customs to get them through?

What is the airport's responsibility, in your opinion?

WHITCOMB: Well, I think all of us are partners in the air transportation system, and so, after we have a few moments to get the system back up and running operationally. I think we'll all have a chance to sit down and try to think about how we could have done this better. But, again, finger pointing really doesn't do anything at this point.

The real issue is to try and make sure we get the passengers on their way. That was the goal from everybody in the beginning and hopefully we can get that accomplished now.

FEYERICK: Well, if I were you, I would be pointing the finger at the snow. But I'm just kidding, trying to add a little levity to a clearly a very frustrating situation for so many people.

Gus Whitcomb from Cathay Pacific, we really do appreciate your joining us. One quick question, though. Are there other planes inbound to the New York area?

WHITCOMB: We actually -- well, probably other planes from other airlines. We are actually not going to be bringing any additional airplanes into the airport until we get the planes that are on the ground out and on their way. And we have a much more structured way to make sure that once it comes in, it's going to be able to get into the gate and get out.

FEYERICK: OK. Gus Whitcomb from Cathay Pacific, we really do appreciate your joining us now.

WHITCOMB: Thanks, Deborah.

FEYERICK: And we are hoping in just a little bit to go to our White House correspondent, Ed Henry. He is covering the president's vacation in Hawaii. I'd like to cover that. We expect you're going to get a huge laugh because Ed has a special surprise in store for you.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: We have been trying to convince you that our senior White House correspondent is working hard covering the president's vacation in Hawaii. And truth be told, he is working kind of hard. But when you go to Hawaii, people are just jealous.

Now, wait until you see what he's been doing in his free time on his stake-out in the 50th state -- Ed. ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Deb, I feel bad following these stories about stranded passengers because while there's a light rain falling on me, you can see it's kind of overcast today. We've got nothing like that. It's still beautiful here.

A woman just got out of the beach behind me while I was waiting with a giant board and said she had been surfing for 90 minutes and was exhausted. So, people are still going out there. The waves are supposed to be better when it's rainy.

And, you know, my operating philosophy here on the beach is the last thing you want to be -- I know it looks ridiculous sometimes -- but last thing you want is to be Richard Nixon and come on the beach with a Washington suit and wingtips. You got to just live it. You know, and own it. You can't be scared to jump in.

So, yesterday, I did something I may regret which is I took hula lessons (INAUDIBLE) at the hotel here, decided to offer up to the White House press corps. Some of my colleagues went. Other of my colleagues, some of them told me they decided not to go because they knew I was going to actually shoot videotape here and they didn't want to be part of it.

So, you'll see some of my colleagues. You'll see Ashley Tate- Gilmore, from the White House travel office, who organizes travel for the White House as well as the media. She didn't want to be in it, but her relatives said she should be in it and they gave me permission to use it. I'm just going to let you see me getting the whole lesson and we'll talk about this on the other side.

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FEYERICK: OK. Ed, I'm telling you, I take it back. I'm not going to learn any moves from you.

But we know it's a tough beat. We know that when you are on assignment, there never is any real down time because you're always kind of waiting for something to break. So, thanks so much, Ed. We're going to check in with you a little later on.

HENRY: OK.

FEYERICK: All right. Take it easy, my friend.

Well, he was "The New York Times" reporter who was captured by the Taliban. After seven months of captivity, he escaped and now, he's written a book about his fight for freedom. David Rohde joins us next. You definitely want to hear from the NEWSROOM.

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FEYERICK: Well, we send reporters into the war zone to bring back stories that would otherwise be simply reduced to facts and figures, to give a voice to the brutal realities of conflict and life in those zones. It's a dangerous job, as David Rohde knows all too well.

Rohde is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for "The New York Times." He had spent seven years writing a book on the Taliban. There you see him. He was kidnapped in what was supposed to be an interview with a Taliban leader. And he spent more than seven months in captivity in Afghanistan and Pakistan before he escaped.

His book has become a recounting of that time from both his perspective and his wife's perspective, Kristen Mulvihill, who helped negotiate his release. Their book is called "A Rope and A Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides."

David and Kristen are joining us in THE NEWSROOM.

And we want to ask you a question. First, Kristen, your husband comes to you, you've been married two months, and he says, honey, I'm going on a trip. What did you say?

KRISTEN MULVIHILL, CO-AUTHOR, "A ROPE AND A PRAYER": Well, actually, I knew I had married a war correspondent. He made several trips to the region during our courtship. This was to be his final reporting trip. So, I supported it.

I did not know about the specific interview with the Taliban commander which upset me, but I quickly got over that and realized he was kidnapped by the kidnappers, and I needed to just sort of move forward from there to work to bring him home.

FEYERICK: And, obviously, it was as much a struggle for you, Kristen, as it was, David, for you. And, you know, I was riveted by your accounts that you wrote in "The New York Times" of that. How difficult was it knowing that you may never see your wife again? That you may never see life as you knew it again?

DAVID ROHDE, CO-AUTHOR, "A ROPE AND A PRAYER": Well, it was one of the hardest moments actually was when we crossed. I was -- I was kidnapped just outside of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and the Taliban quickly moved me over the border into Pakistan. The tribal areas there, it's really a Taliban mini state, a safe haven they have inside Pakistan. And once we entered there, you know, I wasn't sure I would ever see my wife again. I -- you know, people, you know, have been held there and can be held there for years.

So, I'm just incredibly lucky to be home and she, you know, worked incredibly to help me. I'm just a very lucky man.

FEYERICK: I mean, in a very odd way, this book -- I do want you to explain the title, "A Rope and A Prayer," but it kind of becomes not only a political story, a war correspondent story, but it's also a little bit a love story about trying to get -- trying to be there for the person that you've just married, to help them in a time of terrible crisis.

MULVIHILL: Yes. It was really a test of commitment and it was a commitment we each made every day. He did his best to come home and I did my best to be strong for him back home and, you know, try to see him again.

ROHDE: And what I realized, too, is that whenever you face a crisis in life, you know, particularly around the holidays, in the end, it's your family. It's not necessarily whatever job you have or these other things, you know? The people that are going to support you and have your back in the end -- you know, it's your wife and your family and they were just incredible. I'm just, you know, again, so lucky to have her in my life.

FEYERICK: And now, you were an expert on the Taliban. You trusted a commander to speak with you, to go as his guest. He betrayed that. In the end, what did you learn about the Taliban and what do you think they ultimately learned about you?

ROHDE: I was surprised -- in terms of, this doesn't apply to all Taliban, I think there are kind of more moderate Taliban inside Afghanistan itself. But the Taliban operating in the tribal areas of Pakistan are very extreme. They have crazy these conspiracy theories that they believe American troops were forcing Afghan Muslims to convert to Christianity, and, you know, what I saw was that these guys that kidnapped me, they pretended they were this pious religious movement but they were really criminals.

And, you know, I ended up deciding in the end, because I just hated -- I hated that commander. He had interviewed other -- two other western journalists and not kidnapped them, but he kidnapped me. And I hated him for what, you know, he was doing to my family and what he was putting my wife through.

So, they are much more extreme in tribal areas of Pakistan and that's, you know, a very dangerous thing for the United States. The young man that tried to set off a suicide bomb, a truck bomb, excuse me, in Times Square last year

FEYERICK: Faisal Shahzad.

ROHDE: -- he was trained in this exact same area. Yes, Faisal Shahzad. That area is still under Taliban control and he was trained in the exact same place where I was held hostage.

FEYERICK: When you think about some of the promises that the Taliban's making, what is it that you had hoped to learn in this interview? And when you walked away, what is it you thought about the overall situation?

ROHDE: I think that the key thing is this dynamic where Pakistan is allowing the Taliban to have the safe haven. I wanted to interview him to explain how the Taliban had regained strength. Dozens of journalists have interviewed the Taliban. I was just very unlucky.

And what I saw, you know, frankly, is that the surge in U.S. troops, I don't think it will work and most experts don't think it will work as long as these safe havens exist in Pakistan. They can simply wait out the surge of U.S. troops, and it's a stark message. But that's honestly what I believe after what I saw in that tribal area. FEYERICK: First-hand, absolutely.

Kristen, the book is called "A Rope and A Prayer." What does that mean?

MULVIHILL: Yes. Well, the rope is part of his daring escape which was successful, obviously. And then prayer, you know, played a major role for me, particularly as the months dragged on and it was hard for me to find that positivity within myself. I did say prayers. It was a way to sort of surrender, acknowledge that I wasn't going to have control over the situation, but it was a way to surrender without giving up.

And for friends and colleagues as well, about a week before he escaped, they all took a moment at 10:00 a.m. on a Sunday and thought about David or said prayers for him or lit a candle -- everybody sort of rallied to send positive energy his way. So, that was a large part of it as well.

FEYERICK: And what's so interesting is you couldn't even really publicize this because you were afraid your captors would use this against you. They were demanding $25 million. They wanted the release of 15 Guantanamo detainees.

How were you treated? How was it like being a hostage with these people?

ROHDE: I was physically treated very well. I mean, I was never beaten. They saw me as a very valuable prisoner. They had these sort of delusional ideas about what they could get, their demands were astronomical.

They never beat me. I was given bottled water and that they actually called me the golden rooster.

But what did surprise me was the conspiracy theories that they believed in, that 9/11, you know, was a pretense to occupy Muslim countries. And in terms of hostages, if you remember the case of the American sea captain kidnapped off Somalia, they said, oh, no, no, you know, that story about the three pirates being shot by American snipers, that's not true. The U.S. government secretly paid $25 million in ransom.

So, they just live in this alternate reality again in the tribal areas of Pakistan. It's very dangerous.

FEYERICK: You know, it's interesting. I was speaking to somebody, talking about an alternate reality and who was up in that area, who said that some of the people you talk to don't even know what 9/11 is fundamentally. They're just sort of joining the cause because they are being told they need to join the cause.

You ended up escaping, David. Tell me how that worked. Tell me how you got away.

ROHDE: This is, as Kristen mentioned, the rope part of the book. We were -- our captors felt so comfortable in terms of the Pakistani military. There are Pakistani military bases but the soldiers just don't come off them and challenge the Taliban. So, their first mistake was they moved us to a house that was only three-tenths of a mile from the Pakistani base. I then found a car tow rope in the house we were held hostage and we used that rope to lower ourselves down a wall. We walked to that base.

At first, the guards on the base thought that we were potentially militants ourselves. They thought that we were maybe suicide bombers. We spent 10, 15 minutes standing in a road with our hands up, after we took off our shirts and did other things, they let us on the base.

And this is a really important thing. There was a moderate young Pakistani army captain that let me on that base. He let me call Kristen and say that we had escaped and he saved my life.

There are moderates in that region. Most people in Afghanistan and Pakistan don't support the Taliban. And I'm here today because, you know, those people helped me.

FEYERICK: Wow. Well, David Rohde, Kristen, we are so pleased that you joined us. The book is called "A Rope and A Prayer: A Kidnapping From Two Sides" -- thank you both so much for joining us.

MULVIHILL: Thank you.

ROHDE: Thank you.

FEYERICK: We're going to be back after the break. We've got a lot more.

So, stay with us.

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FEYERICK: Well, checking developments on our top story this hour. Look at those pictures.

Right now in Maine, a rescue operation is wrapping up at the Sugarloaf Mountain ski resort. A ski lift malfunctioned, left about 200 people stuck 30 feet above the slope. Most of the skiers were lowered down by rope.

A CNN colleague was among them. He says several people were thrown off the lift after it came to a sharp stop. At least eight injuries are reported.

And considering all the battles on Capitol Hill this year, who do you think the Democrats are supporting for president in 2012? We'll have the answer in our political update.

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FEYERICK: We've got some news to tell you. You know that Cathay Pacific flight that was stuck on the tarmac at JFK for 12 hours? Well, those people just got off the plane. We are going to our CNN colleague, Elise Zeiger in New York. She's standing there with one of those passengers -- Elise.

ELISE ZEIGER, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER (via telephone): Hi, Deb.

Yes, I'm here with passenger Vincent Butcher (ph), who was traveling with his wife and three children. And yes, they were sitting on the tarmac. They landed at approximately 2:15 in the morning and they were released at the gate at about 1:00 p.m. So, almost 12 hours of sitting on the tarmac.

I will let you speak to Vincent. He can describe his ordeal.

FEYERICK: Yes, Mr. Butcher.

VINCENT BUTCHER, PASSENGER: Hello.

FEYERICK: Mr. Butcher, thank you so much for joining us. What was it like? It had to have been excruciating.

BUTCHER: It wasn't fun with three children sitting there, literally three to four hours (INAUDIBLE). And then once we arrived, to have to sit there for another 12 hours wasn't the best.

FEYERICK: Was there food? Was there water? Did you have enough blankets?

BUTCHER: Blankets and that were fine. Water was fine. There was plenty of that. Food was pretty scarce.

In the end, there was just peanuts and juice the kids were picking on. And there were no meals or anything like that.

FEYERICK: How angry or upset was the pilot and the flight attendants? Did they say that they had made a mistake by landing there when no gate was prepared?

BUTCHER: No. No one said there was a mistake made. The pilot was quiet. But certainly no one has admitted to making any mistakes.

FEYERICK: Cathay Pacific says it's going to try to make it right. In your mind, what can make it right?

BUTCHER: Oh, well, not much can make it right now. Actually, sitting on your backside on the plane, (INAUDIBLE), you can't turn back time in that regard. But, at the moment, we're in another line, we had to go to another terminal to try to find our bags. No one knows where our bags are. (INAUDIBLE) of the plan and there's no one from Cathay Pacific here with regards to that.

FEYERICK: When you left Vancouver and you say the plane was delayed, did you have the expectation that in fact, just very quickly, that the plane was going to land, or was there a question at the time?

BUTCHER: When we got on the plane we knew the plane was going to land. And we didn't realize there would be such a delay taking off. When we landed, no one expected to be sitting there for 12 hours, nearly, waiting to get off the plane.

FEYERICK: All right. Well, certainly a cascade effect. Vincent Butcher, we thank you so much. And welcome to New York.

CNN NEWSROOM continues right after the break. Don Lemon coming up.

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