Virgin Atlantic flight to JFK becomes a 27-hour ordeal

[hrmjustin]

Eyewitness News

NEW YORK (WABC) -- It was a travel nightmare for hundreds of passengers. They are finally home after their flight from London to New York was forced to make an emergency landing in a remote corner of Canada. There were no hotels available, so passengers had to camp overnight in a tiny airport while the airline tried to figure out how to get them all home.

For the 250 passengers an 8 hour flight became a 27 hour nightmare.

"We're really just really thankful to be in New York," passenger Maya Torayn said.

Virgin Atlantic's flight V-S-25 took off from London's Heathrow Airport on Saturday. It was set to arrive at JFK airport just before midnight on Saturday until the pilots reported a problem.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=9211319

[enlightenment]

1. Twenty-seven hours of discomfort

is infinitely better than not getting home at all.

I feel for them, but they're alive - that's what counts.

[hrmjustin]

3. Yes they have something to be very thankful for.

[Stargazer09]

2. A nightmare, perhaps

But honestly, I would be thankful the plane made it over the ocean and landed safely. A fuel leak is not the sort of thing you want on any flight, especially a trans-Atlantic one.

[hrmjustin]

4. I would have kissed the ground when I landed.

[Stargazer09]

5. The ground,

The pilots, the aircrew, the airplane...

The list goes on.

[hrmjustin]

6. Then I would have hit the booze.

[Stargazer09]

7. No kidding

I'm not much of a drinker, but I certainly would have!

And I would have spent the next leg of the trip feeling extremely paranoid about that airplane.

[hrmjustin]

8. I think I would have had to be sedated to get back on a plane after that.

[madaboutharry]

9. I would be grateful to be safe,

but I can understand how tired they must have been.

[hrmjustin]

10. Yep! As I said I would have kissed the ground.

[Politicalboi]

11. I know what the trouble was

It was those Newfoundland Gremlins hoping for tourist to stop by.

[hrmjustin]

12. I loved that episode.

[kestrel91316]

13. I'd prefer that to the 24 hours I spent camped out in the Las Vegas

airport a few years ago on my to WI for Christmas.

[hrmjustin]

14. Why did you have to wait 24 hours?

[kestrel91316]

15. Fog on the ground in WI kept our plane from leaving there and getting to LV. I was flying an airline

that only flies the route once or twice a day. The flight out of WI was eventually cancelled because the pilots had been awake too long, and we couldn't get meal or hotel vouchers because it was a weather delay. So we slept on the floor of the terminal, and wandered around being driven stark staring mad by all the noise from the slot machines.

Not one of my better vacations.........

[hrmjustin]

16. I had to wait 10 hours once for a plane but I have been lucky with planes for the most part.

[kestrel91316]

17. I'm terrified of flying anymore. And it's not the flying, it's the delays and ruined trips.

I also had a near-24 hr delay 2 years ago trying to get to my niece's wedding in FL via Atlanta during spring storm weather.

[gopiscrap]

18. This is the kind of fucking shit that god damn businesses should

not be allowed to get away with. After a few hours all these folks should have gotten hotel rooms and meals!

[hrmjustin]

19. I agree 100%