Up to 100 TV news reporters, presenters and crew, including the BBC's George Alagiah and ITN's Dermot Murnaghan, have spent the night in Stansted Airport unable to get to America.
A private jet chartered by the two broadcasters has been on standby since Tuesday's terror attack on New York.
They spent the night in the departure lounge and will take off "the minute clearance is given".
Limited travel is expected to be allowed in the US today but it is not clear whether news organisations will take precedence in the flight queues.
The American authorities' priority is to get the tens of thousands of passengers stranded at airports back home.
Up to 17,000 people who were flying to the US on Tuesday are marooned in Vancouver because all flights into America were diverted to Canada.
"It is very very frustrating for everyone out there. But we are lucky that we have a relatively big team already in America - with four in New York and five people in Washington - but obviously they need back-up because of the demands of our 15 different radio and TV networks," said a BBC spokesman.
Others stuck at Stansted include the BBC's Eddie Mair, John Sweeney and Newsnight presenter Jeremy Vine.
Tom Bradby, Andrea Catherwood and Mark Austin, and Channel 4 News's Alex Thompson and Kirsty Lang's make up some of the ITN contingent.
The BBC's Washington correspondent, Stephen Sackur, was away when the terrorists struck America - he was in South America but has spent the last two days driving back to the US and is expected to arrive in New York this afternoon.
Rolling coverage of the aftermath of the attack has meant that those journalists in situ, such as the BBC's Stephen Evans, who was in the World Trade Centre when the planes crashed into the first tower, have been in demand virtually round the clock.
By contrast, US networks such as NBC and CNN have been able to call on hundreds of reporters and, although they are concentrating on the carnage in New York and Washington, they are already providing in-depth packages from Florida and elsewhere in America with interviews from hoteliers, bar staff and aviation schools who encountered the terrorists.
