Passengers en route to Hong Kong shiver through 13-hour ordeal on Canadian tarmac
- Plane had to make emergency landing in Newfoundland where it sat in the bitter cold
- Passengers shivered under the thin blankets handed out by flight attendants
A medical emergency and a mechanical problem left passengers on a United Airlines flight stuck for more than 13 hours on the frigid tarmac of a Canadian airport in the plane’s barely heated interior, the CBC network reported.
United Flight 179 had taken off late Saturday from Newark, New Jersey en route to Hong Kong with some 250 passengers on board.
When a passenger suffered a medical emergency the plane made an emergency landing in Goose Bay airport in Newfoundland and Labrador province, on Canada’s east coast, the airline told CBC.
But after paramedics evacuated the passenger and took him to hospital, the plane was unable to take off -- reportedly because bitterly cold temperatures (-30 Celsius, or -22 Fahrenheit) had caused a door to freeze.
With no customs officers on duty overnight, passengers were forced to stay on board, many shivering under the thin blankets handed out by flight attendants.