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Tonight, airport chaos. Four jumbo jets stranded for hours on the tarmac in New York. Hundreds of passengers with little to eat or drink. Who's to blame? No one is taking responsibility, and there's plenty of finger-pointing. We're Keeping Them Honest. Plus an American aid worker jailed in Haiti. The allegations sound outrageous...turning a baby into a zombie and kidnapping him. The accusations from a grief-stricken father have landed Paul Waggoner in jail despite no criminal charges. We'll have the very latest. And in our Extreme Living series we're looking at what drives elite athletes to new heights. Tonight we focus on a woman who is making a name for herself in the male-dominated world of Nascar.
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CNN
Close to 10,000 total flights have been canceled since the beginning of a holiday blizzard that blanketed much of the U.S. northeast with snow and left thousands stranded.
Airline representatives from AirTran, American, Continental, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, United, U.S. Airways, Spirit and Southwest reported a total of at least 9,726 trips were called off due to weather since Saturday.
Of those, at least 1,335 flights were canceled on Tuesday as major airports across the region slowly got back to normal.
"With all the cancellations and delays, it'll be two to three days before the airlines are at a regular schedule," said Thomas Bosco, general manager of New York's LaGuardia Airport.
By early Tuesday evening, LaGuardia was still operating well below its normal 70 flights per hour, he said.
John F. Kennedy Airport, in the New York City borough of Queens, and Newark Liberty International, in northern New Jersey, opened to incoming and departing traffic at 6 p.m. Monday, Port Authority spokeswoman Sara Joren said.
AirTran spokesman Christopher White said his airline didn't plan any more cancellations Tuesday after dropping 81 flights on Monday. Instead, White said, AirTran planned to operate additional flights out of LaGuardia, Boston's Logan Airport and White Plains, New York's Westchester County Airport to get people home.
CNN
Airline passengers who spent 11 hours stuck on the tarmac at John F. Kennedy International Airport were unloaded Tuesday afternoon in the latest example of the frustrating effects of a massive blizzard that delayed thousands of would-be holiday travelers.
"There were a lot of people on the plane crying," said passenger Christina Edgar. "It was really a tough situation."
She called the situation "just a bad judgment call."
"They kept trying to get us to go, and they kept us on the plane with no choice," Edgar said.
Travelers aboard the Cathay Pacific Airways flight from Vancouver, British Columbia, arrived in New York at 2:12 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
They got off the plane shortly after 1 p.m. ET.
"It wasn't fun with three children sitting there," said passenger Vincent Butcher. "No one has admitted to making any mistakes."
Cathay Pacific spokesman Gus Whitcomb said the airline's intention was "to get passengers to New York as quickly as possible, and we anticipated to have gate space available."
He said the gate typically assigned to the airline had been moved "because of what became a very fluid situation at JFK due to the weather."
Four international flights were stranded at JFK on Tuesday without gates available to unload passengers, officials said.
"We also had four flights come into LaGuardia, but because they were domestic flights we were able to get them off," said Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman.
Coleman said that because the JFK flights were international, they had to be unloaded in specific customs areas to undergo screening.
"There is just no place that you can dump 1,000 people in a secured area for a period of time," Coleman said.
He said the planes were stranded because the airlines brought them in without checking with terminal operations to see if there was a place to put them.
Anderson Cooper debuts some new accessories as he and Kathy Griffin preview their live New Year's Eve show.
Ready for today's Beat 360°? Everyday we post a picture you provide the caption and our staff will join in too. Tune in tonight at 10pm to see if you are our favorite! Here is the 'Beat 360°' pic:
Zoo owner Manny Tangco holds up a rabbit and a tiger cub while surrounded by local children at the Malabon Zoo in Malabon, in northern Metro Manila on December 28, 2010 to illustrate the shift from the 'Year of the Tiger' to the 'Year of the Rabbit'. (Photo credit:NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images)
Have fun with it. We're looking forward to your captions! Make sure to include your name, city, state (or country) so we can post your comment.
Update: Beat 360° Winners:
Staff
Candy Crowley
“Whoa Whoa Whoa....What's with the tiger? Was told I would run with a tortoise."
Viewer
Stephen C.
"Cage match. Two will enter. One will leave."
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Editor's Note: Find out more about ultramarathon runners in “The Distance of Truth.”
CNN Wire Staff
(CNN) - After referring to himself online only as "The Patriot Pilot," a California-based aviator revealed his identity Monday and explained his crusade to expose what he described as the nation's faulty airport security.
Chris Liu, 50, who has worked as a pilot for American Airlines, said he took and broadcast a video online presenting his view of San Francisco International Airport security because he "saw a potential problem," but didn't foresee the resulting uproar.
"Janet Napolitano did state that if you see something, say something," he said Monday night on CNN's "AC 360," referring to the nation's Homeland Security department chief. "I think (the public) already knows (about security issues) personally."
His footage, posted in late November and later removed from the popular video-sharing website YouTube, detailed his view of San Francisco International Airport security. On it, he said, "As you can see airport security is kind of farce."
On Christmas, the airport fired back deriding what it described as the pilot's "misleading" information and like-minded critics who had rallied behind him.
A statement attributed to the airport said it was proud to be "both an innovator and a trendsetter in aviation security."
"SFO meets, and in many cases, exceeds every federal security requirement," the statement said.
Liu said Monday that the videos, which he narrated, aim to show the contrast between the passengers, who were heavily scrutinized, and airport employees who just passed through a single door.