A disgruntled United Airlines passenger who was forced to spend days on a freezing Canadian island after an emergency flight diversion said the airline “completely dropped the ball” and those affected should receive compensation.
Phillip Magness, 43, who lives just outside Washington, D.C., was one of 259 passengers and 12 crew left stranded in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador after a traveler suffered a medical emergency halfway through the flight.
The flight took off from New York’s Newark Liberty International Airport just after 8 p.m. last Thursday and was headed to Dublin before it was diverted. Magness, an economic historian, was supposed to catch a connecting flight from Dublin to London, where he was due to speak about President Donald Trump’s tariffs at a conference.
Instead, Magness and the hundreds of others on board United Flight 23, landed at St. John’s International Airport at about 2:30 a.m. last Friday and spent the entire weekend in frigid temperatures in Newfoundland.
Magness, who takes up to 70 flights a year, said that the airline had left passengers completely in the dark.
“An apology would certainly be in order, just for the lack of customer service,” he told The Independent. “I think it would be fair to ask them to compensate passengers that had to go to Walmart to get clothing and toiletries, and also the things that we lacked for almost 72 hours when we were stuck there.”
The economist stressed that the flight’s crew were right to take whatever steps necessary to get the ill passenger medical attention.
“It was after that just United completely dropped the ball,” he said.
After landing in Newfoundland, passengers were stuck on the plane for about four hours before eventually being let off at about 6:30 a.m., Magness said. They sat on the tarmac for the first 90 minutes with no announcement from the pilot and “the crew was basically silent,” he said.
The passenger requiring medical assistance, however, was tended to within 15 minutes. United Airlines told The Independent that they were taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Passengers were greeted by two airport staff, Magness said. Despite being alerted by text that a United customer service representative would meet them upon arrival, no one from the airline was in sight, he added. St. John's is a small airport that doesn't typically handle large commercial flights.
At about 7:30 a.m., they were bused to a local Marriott hotel — without their luggage. Magness said passengers were receiving inaccurate information from United about their flight, and when he spoke with a customer service employee, who was seemingly unaware of the diversion, he was allegedly told: “Aren't you supposed to be landing in Dublin?”
“I’m a very experienced flyer, and I've never seen anything so atrocious in terms of customer service as this one… It’s my worst disruption by far,” he said. “It's just a complete breakdown in communication.”
Passengers were shuttled from the Marriot to the airport at 4 a.m. on Saturday as temperatures plummeted to 21 degrees for a rescheduled flight to Dublin, which was once again canceled due to an incoming blizzard. Passengers asked for their luggage but were denied because of the weather, Magness said.
At that point, it was “48 hours, at least, with no new clothes, toiletry or anything in the middle of the blizzard,” he said.
Magness said he couldn’t get to vital blood pressure and allergy medication that he had packed in his luggage and was forced to head to a local Walmart to pick up some supplies.
“I got medication, got a jacket, a pair of shoes that were more suitable for walking in snow, basic toiletries, like toothbrush, toothpaste, all of that stuff,” Magness said.
Morale amongst the group became “extremely low,” he said.
There were elderly passengers in their 80s and 90s who required wheelchairs and a dozen young students from an Oklahoma school who were due to go on a class trip to Dublin.
“We're now getting very visibly frustrated because we had the same clothes we were wearing on Thursday when we departed,” he added.
After weather conditions finally improved last Sunday morning, the flight was able to take off — after one final 45-minute delay — and arrived in Dublin at 4:21 p.m. Magness made it to the conference on Monday, and landed back on U.S. soil on Thursday — this time without a hitch.
“It was just a very standard flight was refreshing to be able to just take off and land on time,” he said with a chuckle.
When asked about Magness’ experience, United gave a statement outlining the trip.
“United flight 23... diverted to St John’s International Airport to address a medical issue with a passenger onboard,” the airline said. “Medical personnel met the aircraft on arrival at St John’s and transported one passenger to a local hospital. While high winds kept the aircraft grounded, we provided hotel accommodation and meal vouchers for our customers. With the weather improved, the flight departed Sunday morning from St John’s to Dublin and arrived at 4:18 p.m.”
