Take on the delay

so i was due to fly out of JFK today to Beijing through Tokyo.. Get to the airport at 10AM for a 12:40PM flight.. nothing too exciting other than the lack of edible options in the lounge..    I board the plane at 12:10PM, with three papers, 10 dowloaded podcasts, an E-Book and a ton of work to catch up on.   I order my lunch and dinner options, check out the inflight movies, download my emails and make a couple of calls before the message comes across the system saying to turn off personal electronics as they are closing the cabin doors..  by 1pm when we haven't left the gate, I'm a bit annoyed but as I have a 3 hour layover, I figure it might be a blessing.    By 1:20pm the captain comes on to say there was an issue with a cargo door and that they had already called for maintenance..  By 2:00pm he comes on to say the work is nearly completed and that we should be taking off shortly but that there is some expected tailwind which should cut an hour out of our flight so we'd be landing nearly on time.   by 2:30pm he says the work is complete and they are just putting the cargo in.  by 3:00pm they said there was one more piece that needed to be put in.  By 3:30 they say that they are filling out some paperwork and that we should be pushing off shortly.  By 3:45 they say that they have opened the door and that anybody who wants to leave is free to.   By 3:50 the entire plane of 400 people is in total panic.  by 3:55pm there is talk of a mutiny. by 4pm the pilot comes on to say that because of FFA regulations none of the pilots can fly this plane because it would have them 'on' for longer than allowed and that they are looking for another flight. 

now mind you this is not a flight to Boston but a flight to Tokyo and being a seasoned traveler (or somebody with common sense) I realize that finding this pilot is not exactly going to be easy.   As I am not 100% sure I will miss my connection I decide to deplane and as I walk off an announcement comes on to say that all passengers should get off.   I run to the transfer desk and spend the next 2 hours fighting with them to try to get me to Asia....  the problem is that it's now well past 5 and there are no more flights that leave on Monday that will get me into Asia on Tuesday.  Now I am very glad that there are regulations so that pilots must be well rested, but I do get annoyed when this all seemed very predictable 5 hours earlier...