Passengers onboard United Airlines flight 958 from Chicago to London were forced to spend close to 24 hours in freezing army barracks after their plane took an unexpected diversion to the eastern corner of Canada, reported MSNBC.
The flight was redirected to Goose Bay, Newfoundland, Canada, where the passengers spent the night, while the flight crew were put up at a local hotel and were nowhere to be found, according to outraged passengers.
The flight was on its way from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to London's Heathrow Airport when the pilot announced that they would be making an emergency landing due to a "maintenance issue," according to NBC Chicago.
"The captain came on and, basically, just said there were some lights on in the cockpit and that there was some vibrations that passengers in the back of the plane were feeling," said passenger Lois Harper, reported CNN.
According to Harper, the captain announced that they would be landing as a precautionary measure. "And that was pretty much the only information they shared with us," she said.
Approximately half an hour later, the plane landed at Goose Bay and the passengers, after some waiting, were told that they would be sleeping overnight at the military barracks and that breakfast would be provided once the sun comes up, said Harper.
She then went on to describe the unpleasant conditions at the barracks. "In the [barracks] that I was sent to, there weren't any towels available. While there was a bed, there were no blankets... and there was no heating in the particular barracks building I was assigned to. So it was quite cold for quite a few hours while we waited for breakfast to be served."
In the morning, the passengers were taken to the mess hall of the military base. "That's when it hit us that there was no one from United Airlines there to represent their company and to inform us of, really, what we were going to expect next," she said. "That was the biggest disappointment of all."
The United Airlines staff was absent because they were probably in their hotel rooms, as this tweet from the company indicates:
The stranded passengers were then flown from Goose Bay to Newark, N.J., where they had to take another flight to London on Saturday night. Several passengers took to social media to vent their frustrations over their travel woes.
