A Cathay Pacific flight from New York City to Hong Kong turned into a 34-hour ordeal that included a 15-hour unscheduled layover in Zhuhai, China,
NBC News reports.
Severe weather, restrictions on how many hours pilots can work and government policies kept 256 passengers trapped on the plane in China, according to NBC. Cathay Pacific Flight CX831 departed New York's JFK International Airport on the afternoon of March 29 for what was supposed to be a 16-hour flight to Hong Kong.
The plane was making its approach into Hong Kong during a lightning and hail storm. It was diverted to Zhuhai, NBC reports.
Once it landed there, passengers and crew were forced to stay on the Boeing 777 on orders by Chinese leaders in charge of immigration and customs at the airport, Cathay Pacific told NBC.
At the same time, pilots and crew were required to rest by law. Cathay Pacific sent a replacement crew from Hong Kong to Zhuhai, but even they ran into obstacles when Chinese authorities would not allow them to fly into the city. Instead, they had to take a ferry from Hong Kong to Macau then drive an hour to the city, according to NBC.
"When I heard about this I immediately felt sympathy for the passengers and the crew," Julie Jarratt, a spokesperson for Cathay Pacific, told NBC.
"This was certainly a rare circumstance and one we want to avoid if at all possible."
The flight finally departed Hong Kong at 1:08 p.m. on March 31 and arrived an hour later. Cathay Pacific compensated passenger with about $322 each.
"This flight was definitely not a good representation of what Cathay Pacific wants to happen on its flights," Jarratt told NBC.