United Airlines flight to Hong Kong diverts to Canada, leaves passengers stranded for more than 14 hours

A United Airlines flight headed to Hong Kong wound up stuck in Canada for more than 14 hours thanks to a series of medical and mechanical issues.

The diverted flight left Newark Saturday at 3:05 p.m. – but before it could make headway into the journey to Hong Kong, was forced to land at the Goose Bay Airport in Newfoundland, Canada due to a medical emergency, according to CNN.

The sick passenger was quickly taken to a local hospital, but a mechanical issue kept the plane grounded. And grounded. And grounded.

Passenger Sonjay Dutt live-tweeted his experience on the plane, and said that it was a broken door keeping the flight from taking off.

CNN reports that passengers were not permitted to leave the aircraft because there was no customs officer on duty, and so they were forced to wait in weather that dipped below negative 20 degrees.

“Please help us. This is an emergency @united. People are not doing well. Running low on food,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s freezing, not safe for children and elderly.”

Dutt noted that airport officials brought snacks and water from popular Canadian chain Tim Horton’s after several hours.

He said that after 14 hours of being stranded at Goose Bay, a rescue plane arrived with a new crew, mechanics and gate agents. The rescue plane was meant to fix the door, Dutt said, but instead, welcomed the passengers on board and took them back to Newark since the fix took too long.

Passenger Steven Lau summed up his journey on Twitter with the message, “Expectation: 16-hour @united flight from Newark to Hong Kong. Reality: 16-hours flight from Newark to Newfoundland and Labrador and back to Newark.”

United did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

There were 250 passengers on board, according to CBC News.