Passengers on multiple United Airlines flights say they were stranded aboard planes for hours at Newark Liberty International Airport on Wednesday, with some flights eventually canceled after lengthy delays on the tarmac.
Alan Tuerkheimer said he boarded his flight home to Chicago at 5:40 p.m., but what followed turned into a seemingly never-ending nightmare.
“We boarded the plane at 5:40 p.m. — that’s when all the chaos and problems ensued. We ended up sitting on the tarmac for seven hours,” Tuerkheimer said.
Tuerkheimer described confusion among passengers as they waited for updates from the airline.
“It was very confusing — we’re wondering what’s going on, what were they telling compared to what was really going on, what were they not telling us? It was very strange,” he said.
Passengers from several United flights shared similar experiences, saying they boarded planes Wednesday afternoon only to remain stuck on the tarmac at Newark Airport for hours before many flights were ultimately canceled.
One passenger said tensions could have escalated during the prolonged delays.
“I thought it was going to start to get unruly, people were going to get like that. They didn’t, people kept their cool,” the passenger said.
Tuerkheimer said stranded travelers had to come up with their own backup plans to get home. He eventually took an Uber to Newark-Penn Station around 2 a.m., boarded an Amtrak train to Philadelphia and then found another flight to Chicago.
He said the roundabout trip cost him thousands of dollars, while the airline only provided a $15 food voucher.
“As you can imagine, some of people when they received that were laughing, but not in a ‘This is funny, haha’ way. This is pretty ludicris,” Tuerkheimer said.
Another passenger, Paul Rodgers, said he and a group of friends were returning from a European cruise and trying to make it back to Texas for their grandchildren’s graduation ceremonies. But the delays may cause them to miss important the important family events.
“It just was very disorganized,” Rodgers said. “We asked them for an option for a hotel — they said no you’re on your own.”
Video showed the long, winding line of frustrated travelers inside Newark when Rodgers and other riders were finally let off their planes.
“The best we could do was we leave [Friday] at 2:30 p.m. If it doesn’t rain, we’ll get in at 5:30 p.m. We’ll try to salvage what we can, hopefully make the graduation parties,” he said.
In a statement, United Airlines blamed the weather for the disruptions.
“Severe weather impacted all airlines across the Northeast yesterday and our teams worked to get our customers to their destinations as soon as possible,” the airline said in a statement.
Passengers, however, questioned whether the weather justified the lengthy delays.
“It was a really nice rain storm that lasted 20 minutes. That’s it,” said Rodgers.
Travelers said spending that much time stranded on the tarmac was unacceptable and are now calling for greater accountability from airlines.
“I just feel so sorry for things my friends are gonna miss. We’re going to miss graduations, track meets, events. All we have but once in a lifetime,” Rodgers said.
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC New York. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC New York journalist edited the article for publication.
