The bad weather forced almost 300 Delta passengers from Mexico to spend the night in the asphalt, because its planes were diverted to a regional airport in Alabama without customs to process them.
Almost 300 Delta passengers on two separate flights from Mexico reached their final destination in Atlanta 15 hours late, after a storm diverted its planes to a regional airport without customs, which forced them to spend the night in the asphalt.
An airplane from Mexico City and another from Cabo San Lucas were redirected to the Regional Airport of Montgomery on Thursday night, after the storms led to a land stop at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where they were due to the country.
“It was supposed to be three and a half hours, it turned out to be almost 20 hours,” Alex Alvarez told 11Alive. “Bad climate, we understand it. But things continued accumulating and accumulating.”
Álvarez said the plane was only in circles until the captain finally said they ran out of fuel and landed in Montgomery.
But as a regional airport, Montgomery is not no and border protection, so passengers are allowed outside the plane after landing around 10:30 pm
The flight of Cabo San Lucas to Atlanta faced the same problem when he deviated to Montgomery due to bad weather.
To worsen things, the pilots and the crew had reached their maximum permitted hours for the night, so the passengers had to wait in the asphalt.
It was not until after 5 in the morning on Friday that the passersby were allowed to leave, since Delta prepared to put them on a Montgomery flight to Atlanta after the storms cleared.
But just then, they were confined to the door because they had still passed through customs.
Delta fed them with sandwiches and french fries on Friday morning, said Álvarez, but only after waiting for hours.
Delta said he is reaching each client and offers a complete refund.
“We do not keep how we aspire to serve and take care of our clients in the midst of thunderstorms in the southeast of the United States,” said a spokesman.