there was a place to put them. it is an airline s responsibility to contact the terminal before bringing in flights and they did not. but cathay pacific isn t buying it. its spokesperson says the airline s intention was to, quote, get passengers as quickly to new york as possible and we anticipated having gate space available. so if it s not the airport s fault, who is it? try u.s. customs, noting each of the stranded planes was an international flight, the port authority suggests on the midnight shift there may have been too few officers on duty to clear the passengers through customs. of course a customs spokesperson insists that it wasn t them. a spokesperson saying at no point were customs officials sent home, he said, for flights arriving after midnight there is usually one terminal available, which is always staffed with customs officers. whatever the cause, what about that airline passenger bill of rights that s supposed to limit how much time passengers can sit