Sonjay Dutt happened to be one of the passengers on a plane that had a 14-hour stoppage in the freezing cold while flying from Newark, NJ to Hong Kong. The plane stopped due to a medical emergency, but was further held over after a mechanical issue occurred where the door wouldn’t close. Dutt was quoted in the CNN report:
Sonjay Dutt, a passenger on the plane, said on Twitter that the plane’s door had broken and that they were stuck on board as the weather dipped to negative-20 degrees outside. Unable to leave for hours upon hours, he began tweeting at United for help, saying that they were running low on food.
Finally, after more than 14 hours, Dutt was able to get off the plane with the rest of the passengers.
Dutt had a lengthy Twitter thread documenting his hellishly cold experience and ultimately led to him having to cancel his EWE appearance in Macau, China. Dutt’s trip ended up being much longer than 14 hours:
Please help us. This is an emergency @united. People are not doing well. Running low on food.
— SONJAY (@sonjaydutterson) January 20, 2019
Pilots giving out @united CEO email for us to voice our displeasure.
— SONJAY (@sonjaydutterson) January 20, 2019
UA179 rescue plane is in the air with new crew, mechanics, and gate agents. When they arrive, we hope to know more of what will happen next.
— SONJAY (@sonjaydutterson) January 20, 2019
On a positive note, I spent some time with an amazing seat mate on my 1st flight. Mary, 78, who is on her way to visit every country in the world. She’s at 170 countries currently. Mary had some amazing stories, we shared a great conversation. What a pleasure!
— SONJAY (@sonjaydutterson) January 20, 2019
Coming on 14hours @united.
— SONJAY (@sonjaydutterson) January 20, 2019
Now, we will get off this plane and switch to the rescue plane to take off back to Newark. It’s taking too long to fix the door on this plane.
— SONJAY (@sonjaydutterson) January 20, 2019
Stepped outside to get on bus. The most painful, blistering cold ever. pic.twitter.com/xtLqDOHoBR
— SONJAY (@sonjaydutterson) January 20, 2019
Taking off on rescue plane back to Newark after almost 19 hours stranded in Goose Bay.
— SONJAY (@sonjaydutterson) January 20, 2019
How about this? Since there is no way to make it to Macau for EWE on Tuesday, I’m trying to get a flight home and my flight home is delayed. Yeesh.
— SONJAY (@sonjaydutterson) January 21, 2019
To end this thread, I just landed back home in VA.
I’ll miss the EWE show in Macao on Tuesday. My apologies to those fans coming out for this debut event.
I landed in Goose Bay 25hours ago last night after flight diverted. Now, home to my bed. Wow. Thanks for following along— SONJAY (@sonjaydutterson) January 21, 2019
