Well, since last week when it appeared JetBlue was suffering from a weather-related meltdown of sorts — this story has certainly changed complexion.

Now we know it was not just a mistake to try and get those planes up and flying — the ones that ended up freezing to the concrete at JFK. We now know that this decision then kicked off what appears to have been a collapse of the airline’s crew and scheduling system. This collapse was then complicated by the fact the airline’s reservations system and customer call function were totally unable to handle the demand brought on by the airline’s shutdown.

Was the airline just deaf, dumb, and blind as to how to be prepared for such a situation?

From what I hear, no. But they were too slow in starting upgrades that are now in progress. Or, as someone said to me this weekend, “We just grew this damn thing too fast over the last two years.”

I tend to believe that. As I wrote over a year ago — JetBlue was moving “Too Much, Too Hard, Too Fast.”

I think that about says it all.

The airline has massive internal infrastructure issues to contend with here — this is just not a matter of leaving some planes off the gate for 10 hours. The problems are much deeper.

On the good side, as I wrote in PBB last week, as this mess was only beginning to show its really ugly ramifications, I had to give CEO David Neeleman high-fives for being out there in the public and taking full blame.

This week, he’s been out even more — and guys, that is not easy to do. And I can count on one hand the times we’ve seen other airline CEOs do the same thing.

I don’t think there’s any question that his personal efforts to numb the sting felt by their customers, by going out and taking the blame, and offering up the airline’s own version of a “bill of rights” for passengers is brilliant from a crisis communications standpoint.

Excellent decision on his part to get out there and take the lumps.

His YouTube video effort was also a brilliant idea. It appears to be unscripted. David is just David, talking as he normally does. It plays as though you’re listening to some guy in his house. Basement with a JetBlue sign behind him? Perfect feel. If they had trotted out some professionally produced slick piece of video, the effect would not have nearly been as positive. Good decision on someone’s part.

But in the meantime, the airline’s operations systems are in need of serious upgrades — and quickly.

Not to mention the stock. Down 7% on Tuesday when the markets reopened, I would have seen this as a buying op, if one was so inclined. And apparently many were.