A United Airlines flight from Newark to Dublin spent days stranded in Newfoundland, a remote island off the eastern coast of Canada. This came after a medical emergency forced an unscheduled landing, only for severe winter weather to prevent takeoff.
United Flight 23, carrying 259 passengers and 12 crew members, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, was diverted to St. John’s International Airport in Newfoundland, Canada, on Thursday after a passenger suffered a medical emergency about three hours into the flight. Emergency personnel met the aircraft upon arrival and transported the affected passenger to a local hospital.
However, as passengers waited to resume their journey, high winds and heavy snowfall trapped them in the small, rural airport for days, unable to retrieve their checked luggage. Some passengers voiced frustrations on social media, sharing that they were left without their belongings for nearly 48 hours in freezing 20°F temperatures.
Cardinal Dolan, on the other hand, made the best of the situation, offering Mass at a local church on Saturday and expressing gratitude for the warm hospitality of the St. John’s community. In a social media post, he wrote, “Thank you to the gracious people of St. John the Baptist in St. John’s, Newfoundland, who took me in after my flight to Ireland was grounded.”
Meanwhile, United Airlines provided hotel accommodations and meal vouchers for passengers as they waited for conditions to improve. On Sunday morning, the airline announced that the weather had cleared, and Flight 23 was finally able to depart for Dublin, arriving at 4:18 PM local time.
The ordeal comes as the Northeast braces for a bomb cyclone, with thousands of flights delayed or canceled due to dangerous icy conditions and extreme cold temperatures.
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