An Etihad Airways plane prepares to land at the Abu Dhabi airport in the United Arab Emirates on May 4, 2014. Hundreds of air travelers landed in San Francisco Saturday evening, Jan. 3, 2015, safe but irritated after a 28-hour Etihad overseas flight they say included 12 hours on a tarmac at the Abu Dhabi airport without food or accurate flight information.(Photo: Kamran Jebreili, AP)
A fog-bound flight from Abu Dhabi to San Francisco turned into a nightmare for passengers trapped on board for 28 hours, including 12 on the tarmac.
Passengers on Etihad Airways Flight 183 over the weekend described "starving" with only one meal for the duration, backed-up toilets and lost or damaged luggage upon arrival.
"Although there was food on board, the crew did not feed the hungry, thirsty passengers and off loaded the meals," passenger Soofia Inayat wrote on Facebook. "There was no water and basic amenities like diapers, ice, snacks, clean drinking water."
"They kept telling us that we were going to leave, you know, 15 minutes from now, 20 minutes from now, 30 minutes for now, for 12 hours," passenger Thomas Piani told reporters in San Francisco after landing Saturday.
Passengers said the flight crew told them the flight was delayed because of fog and the Abu Dhabi airport was too crowded with other stranded flights to allow them to get off the plane to wait.
Joythi Bachwani said she was traveling with her 11-month-old baby, 7-year-old son and her mother, 69, who needs a wheelchair.
"It took hours for the crew to give me hot water to make milk for my baby," she said. "While it is understood that there were weather-related problems, what I fail to understand is that while crew got replaced after few hours, the food, water and toilet supplies for passengers were not replaced properly," she said on Facebook.
A 73-year-old man died on another Etihad flight after it was delayed even longer — 13 hours — from leaving Abu Dhabi for Düsseldorf, Germany,
The National newspaper in the United Arab Emirates reported. That jetliner was diverted to Vienna because of the medical emergency.
"Etihad Airways apologizes to its passengers for the inconvenience that this major disruption has caused and thanks them for their patience during these extremely challenging few days," the company said, according to
The National.
The airline said it booked passengers into more than 2,000 hotel rooms in Abu Dhabi during the weather delays Saturday and Sunday. The company said flight schedules are now returning to normal.
Passenger Mike Vladimer posted a photo on Facebook showing a line of people in San Francisco filing complaints about lost luggage.
Vladimer announced on Twitter the end of his "nightmare experience" with Flight 183 on Sunday: "I got my lost luggage. Guy says he dropped off 100+ bags!"
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