Plane passengers "stranded" in army barracks after flight diverted

Passengers on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to London were outraged after their plane was diverted to Canada, where they had to spend almost 24 hours at a local military base.

The flight was diverted to Goose Bay Airport in Labrador due to maintenance issues and the 176 passengers were given accommodation and meals at the military barracks on Friday night.

Almost 24 hours later on Saturday night, the passengers were flown to Newark airport and forced to go through immigration and customs again before boarding another flight to London.

According to ABC News, a United Airlines spokesperson said: "The flight landed safely after diverting to Goose Bay, Canada, last night due to a maintenance issue.

"Customers were accommodated overnight and provided meals. We are flying the customers to Newark where they will be accommodated tonight on another aircraft to London. We apologize to our customers for this disruption to their travel plans and will be refunding their tickets to London.

"Hotel space was not available, so we accommodated our customers at a local military base and provided meals."

But passenger told Simon Millward told DailyMail.com: "We have been completely abandoned by United staff.

"We were put in barracks with no heating, in the freezing north, and given two thin sheets to sleep with.

"We all slept in our clothes. Not a single person from United has seen us or been in touch."

Other passengers took to Twitter to complain about being stranded.

One wrote: "knock knock! Who's there? Not the crew because THEY'RE IN A HOTEL while their customers are stranded in a barracks in #GooseBay."

Another tweeted: "@united crew arrived, looking fresh from their comfy night in a hotel #outrageous".

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