(WWJ) — More than 300 passengers on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit are still dealing with a travel nightmare, about 24 hours after their flight was originally scheduled to land.
The Delta flight, which was supposed to land at Detroit Metropolitan Airport around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, was forced to land at a small Canadian airport Sunday due to an in-flight emergency involving an engine issue, WWJ’s Jonathan Carlson reported Monday afternoon.
The diversion to Goose Bay, Newfoundland, left the passengers stranded for about 12 hours before a relief flight finally arrived.
But Carlson reports the pilot of that relief flight “timed out” — meaning they reached the maximum number of hours they could legally be on duty.— which extended their already long delay into Monday.
Reports of icing at the airport also caused it to shut down for a period of time, according to Carlson.
The passengers were boarding their flight to Detroit around 2 p.m. Monday, expected to land at DTW shortly after 5:30 p.m. — more than a full day after they were originally scheduled to land, and nearly 36 hours after taking off from Amsterdam.
Due to the lack of hotels in the small Canadian town, Carlson reports many passengers say they were lodged in barracks overnight.
“A lot of passengers obviously upset, wondering what was gonna happen, why they were delayed, when they’re gonna get home,” Carlson reported. “Obviously upset that they didn’t have enough accommodations apparently for the passengers, a lot of them with elderly loved ones, with young children and such, stranded in this small community for such a long time.”
It is not clear what caused the engine issue that initially caused the flight to be diverted to Goose Bay.