Delta Strands More Than 200 People In Remote Canadian Military Barracks Due To Plane's Mechanical Issues

Photo: JoanValls/Urbanandsport/NurPhoto (Getty Images)

Delta Air Lines Flight 135 was scheduled to fly from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to Detroit, Michigan last weekend, but mechanical issues stranded passengers at a remote Canadian Forces Barracks for over 21 hours while the airline attempted to send relief planes and crews to evacuate the passengers before a record-setting blizzard would have kept them there even longer.

Delta’s Luggage Only Flight

The Delta airliner experienced a mechanical problem while crossing the Atlantic Ocean and needed to make an emergency landing, CBS News reports. Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay in Labrador was the closest runway long enough to accommodate the large passenger aircraft.

CFB Goose Bay was built in 1941 during World War II and served as a base for American nuclear bombers during the Cold War. The town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay just outside the airport only has a population of 8,000. It doesn’t help that the town’s average temperature in December is 11 degrees. Detroit might be a cold city, but the flight’s passengers weren’t prepared for such frigid temperatures.

Delta dispatched a rescue flight to get the passengers out of Labrador and to Detroit. The simple solution created another dilemma: There was now a plane ready to take everyone to Michigan, but no staff. The crew that flew the plane to Goose Bay ran out of duty time, and the airport had to suspend operations for the night. The stranded passengers were forced to spend Sunday night in the airbase’s barracks.

The Atlanta-based airline was forced to send a second relief flight for Monday because they were in a race against time. A massive blizzard was headed straight across Labrador, directly at the airport. According to the CBC, Happy Valley-Goose Bay was buried in over two feet of snow by Tuesday. The snowfall broke a record set in November 1944.

Delta Air Lines apologized to its passengers for the inconvenience. Admittedly, the carrier did everything in its power to avoid customers potentially spending days trapped in a massive blizzard.