Serious delays of more than 12 hours left passengers to Bermuda fuming on Delta’s flight from New York JFK this weekend.

The Saturday trip, which generally sets off around 9.15am and lands at about 12.45pm, ultimately left shortly before midnight and touched down in Bermuda at 2.45am on Sunday. “The first delay that they announced was for de-icing, which was totally understandable,” passenger Bernard Reverdin (left), a New York resident who travels often to the Island, told The Royal Gazette.

Departure was put off until 11am, then noon, Mr Reverdin said. “That was still OK with most people. We boarded the plane, which was an old one, but instead of leaving there was a problem in the cockpit.”

Repairmen came on-board and the passengers deplaned, but tempers began to fray after the aircraft was sent to La Guardia for repairs, with a 3pm departure, and did not return.

“Finally, at about 6pm, the plane came back, and we were told there was a problem with the crew — the captain had decided to leave the plane and the crew refused to wait,” Mr Reverdin recalled.

“So they announced they would get another plane and another crew, and the plane would leave at 9pm.”

Come 9pm, passengers were told there was no crew — at which point Mr Reverdin opted for a hotel.

“People were furious,” he said. “The reason for it all was that when Delta flies to Bermuda they use old planes. If it had been going to fly to Paris or Brussels, they would have had an immediate replacement — but for Bermuda, no.”

An inquiry at Delta’s corporate headquarters received no response by press time last night.