Hundreds of Delta Air Lines passengers have been forced to spend an entire night on an airport runway after two packed planes were delayed by 15 hours.
The jets, flying from separate locations in Mexico to Atlanta, Georgia, were diverted to Montgomery in Alabama overnight due to severe thunderstorms.
Due to a lack of Customs and Border Protection staffing, the airport was slated as a ground-stop only, and around 300 travelers had to stay on board for several hours.
A Delta spokesman said the planes could not land in Birmingham, Alabama, which does have Customs staff, because of severe weather there.
Exhausted passenger Christine Millken told NBC News the situation was ‘frustrating’ and ‘uncomfortable’, and left her needing to sleep ‘for 12 hours straight’.
‘Because we were an international flight, they could not open their cart for additional beverages or snacks, or offer meals,’ she said.
‘It was quite nerve wracking,’ she added in an interview with WSB-TV. ‘I think my nerves are very shot from all the turbulence and the back and forth and the circling.’
‘I almost, almost want to cry just because I’m so exhausted, physically exhausted,’ Milliken said. ‘I haven’t slept in like 26 hours.’
Hundreds of Delta Air Lines passengers have been forced to spend an entire night on an airport runway after two packed planes were delayed by 15 hours. They were eventually allowed into a small gate but could not leave the terminal because of a lack of Customs officers
Alex Alvarez (pictured), who was on board a Delta Flight 599 from Mexico City, said the delay stacked up to 20 hours in total. Alvarez is demanding a full refund from the airline
Milliken was one of the 150 people onboard Delta Flight 1828 from Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, which landed in Montgomery around 10.20pm on Thursday.
Passengers were forced to stay on board until 5.15am, when they were allowed off the plane but restricted to the gate.
Alex Alvarez, who was on board a Delta Flight 599 from Mexico City which suffered the same fate, said the nightmare began after they experienced some turbulence.
‘(The delay) was supposed to be three-and-a-half hours,’ Alvarez told 11 Alive.
‘It turned out to be almost 20 hours. If it had been prolonged because of bad weather, we understand that. But things just kept piling up and piling up.’
‘You could see on the tracker that we were just going in circles, and the captain finally said we were running out of fuel,’ he added.
‘So he had to land in Montgomery. Also, the crew and pilot had run out of time. So we’re timed out, meaning we had to get an entirely new crew and pilot from Atlanta.’
Once the passengers were finally freed from the aircraft, passengers said they had to walk to the terminal because the gates couldn’t accommodate large jetliners
Hundreds of Delta Air Lines passengers have been forced to spend an entire night on an airport runway after two packed planes were delayed by 15 hours. They were eventually allowed into a small gate but could not leave the terminal because of a lack of Customs officers
Once the passengers were finally freed from the aircraft, passengers said they had to walk to the terminal because the gates couldn’t accommodate large jetliners.
They were placed into a small zone within the terminal, and were only allowed to use monitored restrooms.
Alvarez said Delta distributed sandwiches and chips to the passengers on Friday morning, after 20 hours of waiting. He’s demanding a full refund.
‘It’s not all Delta’s fault,’ he said. ‘I think it was a small airport, and so they didn’t have security there, immigration to hold people. But Delta dropped the ball in many ways.’
‘We sincerely apologize to our customers for this experience,’ Delta said in a statement.
‘We fell short of how we aspire to serve and care for our customers amid thunderstorms in the Southeast US Thursday evening.
‘We are reaching out to each customer with a full refund of their booking.’
