An American passenger trying to make a regular connection between Los Angeles and Boston ended up having a nightmare day.
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Jonathan Small, Entrepreneur’s environmental editor, was heading to Boston to spend a weekend with friends in neighboring Maine.
Mr. Small, traveling from California with his friend Ron, ended up taking more than “30 hours” instead of six hours to reach his final destination.
His first flight actually took off from Los Angeles International Airport at 7 a.m. before turning back.
AFP
In a viral video posted on TikTok, he explains that the problems arose when the plane was over Death Valley, which is known for its extreme heat in the summer.
According to the pilot, there was a sudden power outage in the cabin of the American Airlines plane.
“The immediate drop in pressure triggered the descent of the emergency masks. “To prevent this from happening in the main cabin, the pilot had to quickly descend from 30,000 to 10,000 feet so that we could breathe oxygen,” the American explains, adding that the other passengers were “terrified.”
After arriving at LAX after an agonizing 30 minutes, the fire department awaited the plane as a precaution.
American Airlines was unable to take off again and was able to find an alternative flight for Jonathan and Ron, explains the journalist.
The second flight was operated by JetBlue, which is known for its low-cost flights.
Getty Images via AFP
The latter set off late in the morning, but Small assured that he and his buddy wouldn’t be late for their dinner in Maine.
This positivity lasted only two and a half hours as the plane made a second emergency landing in Pittsburgh.
This time, a lack of fuel on the plane was to blame, even though the passengers were over Lake Erie.
“The plane had to make an unscheduled landing in Pittsburgh. I looked at Ron from across the aisle. “That wasn’t possible,” the American remembers.
To add insult to injury, passengers were reportedly left on the tarmac for “several hours.”
Jonathan Small regrets that passengers who were completely overwhelmed by the situation increased their insults towards employees.
After four hours of waiting, customers were able to get off the plane around midnight and make their way to the terminal in Pittsburgh.
The long delays in flights to the Massachusetts capital are due to the severe weather that hit New England last July.
At around 1 a.m., more than 19 hours after the first flight, Jonathan and Ron took off for the third time.
The flight ran into trouble near Hartford, Connecticut, a few dozen miles from Boston.
Severe thunderstorms were still raging over the US state and the pilot had to avoid the storm by choosing a route south of Boston.
The plane finally made an “urgent” landing in Boston around 3 a.m. due to bad weather.
30 hours later, Ron and Jonathan finally reached their final destination on the American east coast.
AFP