American Airlines planes sit at gates at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, on June 26, 2022
American Airlines planes.Daniel Slim/AFP/Getty Images
  • Two passengers and a baby were stuck at the airport after the flight was canceled.

  • When the flight was canceled, the mother ran out of baby formula.

  • The pilot said he couldn't fly because there wasn't a copilot.

A connecting flight was canceled in the middle of the night, stranding two passengers and their baby.

Donna and her husband were stuck in Charlotte airport at 130 am after taking a flight from the Dominican Republic.

Donna told Insider that they received an alert from the airline saying their flight was delayed.

The plane remained at the gate for more than an hour while the copilot was not found.

The flight was canceled as the pilot couldn't find a copilot, so we all had to leave the plane.

Donna told Insider that the people already in line were waiting for two to three hours to be re booked.

We decided with our baby that we didn't want to wait in a long line and so we were going to rent a car and drive back to Raleigh, which is about two hours away from Charlotte. Rental desks were closed and they couldn't find a hotel room despite making 20 calls.

Donna was concerned about feeding her baby after running out of formula. I had packed enough to get us home. I didn't account for the flight being canceled or delayed.

Hundreds and thousands of stranded passenger slept on chairs, floors, doorways and everywhere at the airport.

They spent an hour calling AA's customer service line and were offered a flight the next day, even though they ran out of formula. They had to decide if they wanted to accept or not.

Donna was told by the AA that they wouldn't have to accommodate her because of the weather issues.

There was no second pilot and this was a staffing issue. Donna said that she felt very helpless, confused, perplexed, and angered by the pilot's statement that he couldn't fly the plane without a copilot.

The couple were worried about how they would feed the baby.

The airline was contacted for comments.

Business Insider has an article on it.