A United Airlines passenger has described a grueling travel ordeal after her transatlantic flight was hit by severe delays, claiming travelers spent hours waiting near an airport runway outside a customs building.
Heather Fields, an American traveler, was flying from Edinburgh, Scotland, to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on July 27, with plans to continue on a connecting flight to Denver, Colorado.
But the normally eight-hour journey to Chicago was diverted to Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport in Wisconsin — roughly 200 miles north of O’Hare — as powerful storms battered the region.
Fields said the plane touched down in Green Bay at about 2 p.m. local time, only for passengers to remain onboard for approximately four more hours.
“It was quite shocking,” she told ABC7 Chicago on Tuesday. “The bathrooms filled up. Toilet paper ran low, food ran out.”
The situation dragged on further when, according to Fields, the flight crew reached the limit of their permitted duty hours and passengers were then instructed to wait outside on the tarmac for another five hours.
For a brief moment, Fields said, passengers thought relief was finally in sight after they were allowed off the aircraft near a customs facility.
Instead, she claimed, they were told no customs agents were available to process them, leaving the exhausted travelers to endure yet another stretch of the chaotic delay.
American traveler Heather Fields, who now lives in Costa Rica, said she faced a near-20-hour delay while traveling from Edinburgh, Scotland, to Denver with a planned stop in Chicago
Fields said passengers were left to wait on the tarmac of Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport for about five hours after their flight to Chicago was redirected there
Fields believed a Customs and Border Protection office would process her and the other travelers into the country but to no avail
While on the plane, Fields claimed the passengers were ‘able to serve ourselves water’ and noted that she thought ‘there was very little information as to what was happening.’
Fields, who currently lives in Costa Rica, said the situation got so desperate that she started thinking, ‘Am I allowed to leave?’
‘Which is a funny feeling [as] an American coming onto US soil,’ Fields told the outlet.
Photos captured of the passengers showed them laying down and sitting cross legged on the tarmac with planes in the background.
The distressed traveler claimed United gave the passengers pizza but not enough to feed all of them.
‘It became evident that United didn’t have a plan for us,’ Fields said.
Fields added that it ‘was really frustrating that that we were not able to make choices for ourselves.’
She pointed to an elderly woman around her mother’s age ‘who felt like she would faint’ had been ‘trying to sleep on the cold airport floor.’
RELATED: NJ Towns Accused of Wasting $2.3M Opioid Funds on Luxuries
‘I see a woman in a wheelchair,’ Fields continued. ‘And I wonder, how is this for her?’
Flights from Edinburgh (pictured) to Chicago usually take about eight hours, but Fields’ travel ordeal turned her trip into a near-20-hour affair
United Airlines told Our News Outlet that it had provided Fields with an electronic travel certificate and refunded some of her fees
Fields said the passengers eventually went through customs in the Green Bay airport’s international terminal before everyone went their separate ways to ‘make whatever connection or try and get put on a connection.’
However, her travel plans hit another snag at Chicago O’Hare when she was unable to get through TSA before it closed.
Inclement weather had originally shifted her travel plans to the Windy City. On July 27, the National Weather Service confirmed seven tornadoes in the Chicago area, as well as hail thunderstorms and wind gusts of up to 105 miles per hour.
Fields eventually arrived in Denver nearly 20 hours after she had been set to land.
She put in a complaint to United about her experience, which she claimed resulted in the airline offering her $200 in flight credits.
‘I shared that with United and it was really frustrating to receive a very short message just saying that was due to weather,’ she told the outlet.
Fields added that United later increased the credits to $500, which remain on her account.
United said Customs and Border Patrol in Green Bay (pictured) had allowed the passengers ‘to deplane on the tarmac into a controlled area’
United Airlines told Our News Outlet on Wednesday: ‘We apologized to this customer for her experience, provided her with an electronic travel certificate and refunded some of her fees as a gesture of goodwill.’
‘We also provided her with a flight verification letter that she can use with her travel insurance provider,’ United’s statement continued.
The airline also told Our News Outlet that Customs and Border Patrol in Green Bay ‘were unable to clear customers, but allowed them to deplane on the tarmac into a controlled area.’
‘We provided food and beverages and after getting a new crew to operate the flight it departed for Chicago,’ United said.
The US Department of Transportation requires a full refund if a flight is canceled due to weather, but the passengers were already in the air in this case.
Our News Outlet has reached out to CBP for comment.
