NEW YORK (AP) – Airlines unable to fly because of problems with deicing equipment during a winter storm left hundreds of passengers stranded on jets overnight at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The exact number of planes stuck on the tarmac Friday night and Saturday morning was unclear, but irate passengers and airport officials said as many as a dozen may have been involved.

Pilots and officials blamed some of the problems on a shortage of deicing fluid and a new federal regulation giving pilots a narrow window to get their planes in the air once the chemicals are applied. The change has meant some jets need to get doused repeatedly if their takeoffs are delayed.

Whatever the reason, passengers weren’t happy.

Rahul Chandran said he was trapped aboard a Cathay Pacific Airways jet from midnight until nearly 9:30 a.m. Saturday, when the flight to Vancouver was finally canceled.

Throughout the night, he said the plane waited endlessly to have its wings sprayed. The pilot said the terminal had run out of fluid and more needed to be trucked in. When the airline finally tried to return the plane to its terminal, it took at least another hour to arrange a gate, he said.

“You can’t keep your passengers on the plane for 9 1/2 hours,” said Mr. Chandran, 30, of New York City. “They kept saying ‘half an hour more, 45 minutes more.’ But by the time it got to hour six, we were pretty much accepting that we weren’t going to go … At least in the terminal, you can get up and walk around.”

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the metropolitan area’s airports, said airlines – not the airport – are responsible for supplying and maintaining terminal deicing equipment.

But Port Authority aviation director Bill DeCota said airport operators and the carriers need to collectively work out a solution quickly to what is evolving as a major problem with deicing.

Just last month, JetBlue stranded passengers on several planes for up to 10 1/2 hours during a similar storm. At the time, the airline said its inability to get planes deiced in accordance with the new FAA rules was a factor.

“We and the carriers need to sit down and find out whether there is anything we can do,” Mr. DeCota said. “I know there are a lot of irate passengers, and they have a right to be.”

The airlines experiencing problems during Friday’s storm included South Korean carrier Asiana Airlines, the charter company Miami Air and Royal Air Maroc, the national airline of Morocco.

Royal Air Maroc kept one plane full of passengers on the tarmac for nearly 14 hours, DeCota said.

One Virgin Atlantic flight from London – diverted to JFK when bad weather temporarily closed Boston’s airport – sat on a taxiway with almost 200 passengers on board for around six hours before it could take off again, said Virgin spokeswoman Brooke Lawer.

The plane, which was supposed to have arrived in Boston at 6:30 p.m. Friday, finally touched down there at 4 a.m. Saturday.

A second Virgin Atlantic jet that was supposed to have flown to London boarded about 100 passengers for a 9:45 p.m. flight Friday, then kept them on the plane until sometime after 4 a.m., when the flight was canceled.

“I know that deicing was a significant factor,” Ms. Lawer said.

Asked why the airline didn’t return passengers to the terminal, she said there was a shortage of gates, and the airport was already overrun with travelers unable to escape the storm.

“We know that there were thousands of people in the terminal, with very difficult circumstances in the terminal, and we were able to provide service, information and some level of comfort for our passengers while they were on the plane,” she said.

From Friday to Saturday morning, more than 3,600 commuter and mainline flights nationwide were canceled because of the storm. US Airways, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines all reported cancellations.

As for JetBlue, the airline took no chances of a repeat of its problems last month. It canceled about 400 of 550 of all scheduled flights, rather than risk leaving more people stuck aboard idle planes.

JetBlue had mostly normal operations Saturday, said spokeswoman Jenny Dervin.

Friday’s snow, ice and rain storm closed schools in parts of the Northeast and made highways treacherous. The weather was blamed for nearly a dozen traffic deaths in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.