HARTFORD, Conn. -- The pilot on a Virgin Atlantic flight that spent numerous hours on the tarmac after being diverted to Connecticut had asked for consent to unload the stranded passengers, but a customs bureaucrat threatened to have them arrested if they did, the airline said Thursday.

Customs officials denied the airline's accusation.

The trans-Atlantic flight's captain was told by a customs authorized at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks that passengers couldn't get off the plane until more colonization officials arrived, Greg Dawson, an airline spokesman in London, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. It took more than two hours for the official to turn up, he said.

The London-to-Newark, N.J., was diverted because of storms. Passengers sat on the tarmac in Connecticut for four hours late Tuesday and premature Wednesday in rising heat and darkness. Travelers said they were presented water but no food; some fainted.