Legislator Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee yesterday told of being stranded for two days in Alaska after the terror attacks.
Mrs Chow was on board the first flight to return to Hong Kong from the United States after the country reopened most of its airports.
Flight CX 889 was supposed to arrive in Hong Kong from New York via Vancouver on Wednesday, but was diverted to Anchorage after the terror strikes.
Mrs Chow was stranded for two days with other passengers in Anchorage until Thursday morning. 'We didn't know what was going on at all after landing at Anchorage,' she said. 'We were very anxious to find out. Some were Americans who were able to get in touch with their family members on their mobile phones.
'We were told that two flights had crashed into the twin towers and no flights would be allowed to operate in the US. The captain was putting radio programmes on the broadcast system so we were told about the news.'
Mrs Chow said she and the other passengers were put up at a hotel while late-comers for the flight had to sleep at the airport.
Another woman passenger said: 'We were told there were hijack incidents on other planes but no details were given until we checked into a hotel and watched CNN when we realised what had happened in New York.'
