Passengers on a United Airlines flight from Newark to Hong Kong spent 14 hours trapped in a frigid cabin as their plane sat in subzero temperatures on a Canadian tarmac — only to be returned to New Jersey just in time for more bone-chilling weather.
The mercury plunged to -25 (F) at Newfoundland’s Goose Bay Airport late Saturday and winds blustered at up to 31 mph as passengers huddled in the Boeing 777-200, a door of which became stuck open on the ground after the jet made an emergency landing.
United Airlines Flight 179 left Newark Airport at 3:03 p.m. Saturday en route to Hong Kong but made it only as far as Greenland before pilots were forced to turn back and land at Goose Bay at around 9:30 p.m. due to a passenger suffering a seizure.
Hallie Grossman, a 20-year-old college student at University of Texas at Austin, jumped into action after finding out there were no doctors or medical professionals on board.
“I got my EMT certification last summer in New York,” she said. “When we saw the guy seizing, I assumed there’d be a doctor or someone more professional on the plane but no one helped — so I was like, ‘I’m an EMT’ and they were like, ‘OK go help him.’ ”
But the medical emergency was just the tip of the iceberg.
Once the plane was ready to depart, crews couldn’t get an emergency door shut and had to delay the takeoff, according to United.
Minutes turned to hours as the aircraft sat frozen while workers tried to fix the door — but passengers were not allowed to leave the chilly plane because Goose Bay is a Royal Canadian Air Force base and had no customs officer on duty, a United representative said.
Fliers had to weather the long delay inside the plane, where tensions ran high, according to one passenger.
“Please help us. This is an emergency @united. People are not doing well. Running low on food,” pro wrestler Retesh Bhalla, who goes by the ring name Sonjay Dutt, tweeted at around 5:30 a.m. Sunday.
Several passengers told The Post that one person — who was with a woman and a baby — started throwing a fit and cursing out flight staff.
“I don’t know what was said but [the pilot] did come over and they threatened to kick him off,” recalled Carly Zdankowski, 20.
“He was acting like a child,” added Illana Margulis, also 20.
Airport workers eventually showed up Sunday morning with coffee and donuts from Tim Horton’s, and a rescue plane sent from Newark picked up the travelers and returned them to New Jersey.
“We apologize to our customers, and our crew is doing everything possible to assist them during the delay,” a United spokeswoman said.
The fliers will be offered meals, hotel accommodations, reimbursement and compensation, but the rep would not provide specifics.
