47 passengers spend ‘nightmare’ 9 hours stuck on airport runway while new crew is flown in
By APMonday, August 10, 2009
47 spend ‘nightmare’ 9 hours in grounded plane
ROCHESTER, Minn. —Passengers whose flight from Houston to Minneapolis was diverted because of storms had to spend nine hours on the cramped plane on an airport taxiway while a new crew was flown in.
Friday night’s ExpressJet flight normally would have taken about three hours but was diverted to Rochester, Minn., because of bad weather.
Airline spokeswoman Kristy Nicholas says a new crew had to be flown into Rochester because the original crew had reached their maximum flight hours allowed. She says passengers weren’t allowed to sleep in the terminal because the airport didn’t give the airline the option.
The flight made it to the Minneapolis on Saturday.
Passenger Link Christin says being trapped in the plane with its over-used bathrooms was a “nightmare.”
Information from: Star Tribune, www.startribune.com
