Passengers stuck on United flight in frigid cold for more than 14 hours

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

Passengers stuck on United flight in frigid cold for more than 14 hours

By Eric Levenson, Amanda Jackson and Alta Spells, CNN
Updated 2255 GMT (0655 HKT) January 20, 2019

(CNN) — Passengers aboard a United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Hong Kong were left stuck on the ground for more than 14 hours in frigid weather with a dwindling supply of food.

The nightmarish incident began when the 3:05 p.m. flight was diverted to the Goose Bay Airport in Newfoundland, Canada, due to a medical emergency. The plane landed there at 9:31 p.m. AST, and medical personnel met the aircraft and a passenger was taken to a local hospital.

But as the flight was set to take off again, it experienced a mechanical issue.
That's when the waiting began.

Passengers were not allowed to leave the airplane because the Goose Bay Airport did not have a customs officer on duty during the overnight hours. Saturday bled into Sunday, and still the flight remained grounded.

-snip-

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/20/us/united-flight-canada-grounded/index.html


A United flight from Newark to Hong Kong was diverted to Goose Bay, Canada. And then it sat in the cold for hours and hours.

[Turbineguy]

1. I wonder if anybody thought

of taking up a collection to pay the overtime. This sounds like a trump administration clusterfuck. Except it wasn't trump.

[Major Nikon]

4. I doubt it would do any good

Customs officers are federal employees of the nation that employs them. It's not as if you can hand them a wad of cash and expect them to work.

[eallen]

9. This is in Canada.

[Major Nikon]

2. Ah yes, the joys of international air travel

[RainCaster]

3. So glad that has not happened to me

I spend a lot of time on flights, and the mathematics of it happening gets higher every year. I can sympathize with all those poor United victims.

[Kajun Gal]

5. Wouldn't fly if I had to!

[CountAllVotes]

6. UA sucks!!!

Boycott these criminals!

[kimbutgar]

7. I take offense by your comment

As a UA employee this incident was something outof their control. From the medical emergency, to mechanical issue and the international laws of customs. It could hve happened on any airline.

[Major Nikon]

8. UA absolutely did the right thing

They had a medical emergency and they landed at the nearest airport that could accommodate to give the patient the best chance of survival and recovery. From that point everything else was beyond their control.

[EX500rider]

10. I think I might have chosen that over my flt last year...

....Ft Lauderdale to Medellin, Colombia, on Spirit, 2-1/2 hrs into a 3-1/2hr flight some crazy lady tells the flight crew she has a bomb, we divert to Cartagena and sit in a remote part of the airport with no A/C for 2+ hrs waiting for the Colombian bomb squad to bring a dog on the plane, we were on "lock down", no getting out of our seats, no turning on any electronics....was not very fun. The Colombian Police dragged her away, I bet she found Colombian jails a eye-opener.
Although 14 hrs is a VERY long time.

[gopiscrap]

11. My wife and I in January were stuck in Abidjon Ivory Coast for 6 hours on one of those Boeing planes

that was eventually grounded and one time we were stuck in London many years ago when Lloyd's International Airline went bankrupt