With a door that would not shut properly for the next 14 hours, through freezing nighttime temperatures, United Airlines could manage neither repair or replacement as the Boeing 777 sat on the runway of the distant Goose Bay Airport in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador with a full load of increasingly desperate passengers.
After being told that they could not debark the aircraft because Goose Bay had no
overnight customs officer on duty, passengers found themselves stranded in a cold place with dwindling supplies.
Things got so frantic that sympathetic local Canadians brought doughnuts, sandwiches, muffins and coffee from national mainstay eatery Tim Horton's to the plane on Sunday morning.
The airline finally delivered another plane and harried passengers were transferred and flown back to Newark.
A passenger on the plane, Lloyd Slade, remarked on Sunday that he was "just very tired, at this point," cited by CNN.
"Cabin/flight crew have been excellent and very helpful (United HQ/dispatch, not so much.)" the passenger added.