Passengers aboard a Delta Airlines flight from Ghana to New York were diverted to a Portuguese island on Friday, where they said they were stuck for 12 hours and had to beg for food.
According to a report from the New York Post, a Delta spokesperson shared that flight 157 was carrying 215 people headed to New York on Friday when it suffered a “mechanical issue with a backup oxygen system” and was forced to land at Lajes Airport.
However, the diversion was not simple, as several passengers aboard the flight took to social media to share their 12-hour delay from hell.
“We were abandoned by Delta and treated like encroaching roaches by airport representatives on Terceira Islands,” passenger Nana Asante-Smith wrote on Facebook.
Asante-Smith added that the airline acted with “reckless disregard for human life and well-being.”
After passengers got off their plane, they were sent to a “partitioned section” of the airport, as Asante-Smith said they did not have the proper visas to enter Portugal.
While speaking with Business Insider, she said they arrived at 6 a.m. and had to stay at the airport while the crew was sent to a hotel on the island. The passengers were told they had to remain at the airport and that if they wanted more information, they had to contact Delta.
“We were trying to reach out to Delta during this time and ascertain what exactly was going on, to no avail,” Asante-Smith said.
Making matters worse, Asante-Smith said that the passengers were initially told they would be given a meal while they waited for their plane from Boston, but at around 11:30 a.m., five hours into their delay, things changed.
“We learned that we would no longer be fed, because according to an airport representative, Delta had informed them that we had already eaten in advance of our landing, a little before 6 a.m.,” she wrote on Facebook. “We had no other access to food.”
The passengers were given sandwiches, juice, and crackers, but only after hours of begging to get even water, they said.
Still, the group was left waiting, watching planes landing, and hoping they were Delta’s rescue flight as “the elderly, pregnant women, children, became restless, frustrated and confused.”
Eventually, at around 6 p.m., a flight finally arrived at the Lajes Airport and brought the passengers back to John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Asante-Smith shared that passengers went to the Delta representative in New York to complain about what happened but were only told the airline was overwhelmed.
In a statement provided to the Post, a Delta spokesperson said the 215 passengers were given meals and waited about 12 hours for another aircraft to arrive.
The spokesperson went on to say that poor weather conditions on the East Coast caused airline staff to be swamped with requests.
Customers were reportedly given refunds for the flight, but Asante-Smith said she received only an email about the refund and a $400 voucher. Her bags, left in Portuguese aboard the malfunctioning plane, were also not returned to her as of Monday.