A group of passengers on a United Airlines 787-9 flight from Los Angeles to Australia are having a New Year's celebration on Pago Pago in American Polynesia.
Due to the crossing of the international date line, the plane was going to land in Australia on Saturday morning.
When United acquired the route, the 839 flight number was carried over. Pan Am made a stop in Pago Pago on a regular basis.
A suspected oil leak forced the flight deck to shut off one of the engines on the 787-9. It happened about seven hours into the flight. The aircraft continued for three hours at a lower altitude until it diverted to Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa, due to bad weather and no safe landing area nearby.
On December 31, 2002, United canceled the flight from Australia to Houston and sent the passengers to Pago Pago.
On December 30th, the section from Australia to Pago Pago was canceled and the section from Australia to Pago Pago took off at 5:03 pm.
The plane, N 24979, is on its way to Australia with passengers on board. On New Year's Day, it will arrive in Australia at 7:05 am.
Passengers were offered beer and a tour of the island when they arrived in the American territory.
A passenger's father shared on the social networking site.
My daughter is now stranded, United decided to fly another plane in from LAX…should depart 3am 12/31 Pago Pago time. They showered at hanger, got tour of Island and drinking beers on deserted beach.
— Rick Lechtman (@rlechtman) December 31, 2022
Glad they are safe and the islanders treated them very well!
— Rick Lechtman (@rlechtman) December 31, 2022
Passengers were taken care of by United during their time in the airport.
“We’re making use of our facilities, including available hotel options, to accommodate our customers, and will fly in a new aircraft to the island so they can finish their trip to Sydney soon.”
Even though the passengers onboard may have missed the fireworks over Darling Harbour, they had a very memorable New Year's celebration in a very unexpected place, even though they technically missed it. This was the safer option and it probably wouldn't have made it to the other side of the world.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
