Passengers Endure 30-Hour, Puke-Filled Flight to New York

'I've never seen an airsick bag used before and many were'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 18, 2016 6:46 PM CST
Updated Feb 21, 2016 7:32 AM CST
Passengers Endure 30-Hour, Puke-Filled Flight to New York
A four-hour Delta flight between the Dominican Republic and New York ended up taking 30 long, puke-filled hours.   (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

It was supposed to take four hours for a Delta Air Lines flight from the Dominican Republic to reach New York; it took nearly 30, the Chicago Tribune reports. And they weren't a pleasant 30 hours, either. "I've never seen an airsick bag used before and many were," one unfortunate passenger says. Flight 944 left Punta Cana on Monday afternoon but had to divert to New Hampshire after heavy runway traffic and low fuel prevented it from landing at JFK International, per NBC New York. Things didn't get any better in New Hampshire, where the plane had to stay overnight because of rules on how many hours a crew can fly. What's more, passengers had to wait two hours for customs officials to arrive from Maine before they could get off the plane, Gothamist reports.

And even then they were only allowed off 20 people at a time. The plane and its intrepid passengers once again made for JFK on Tuesday only to encounter 60mph winds. It was so bad that many passengers were either puking or getting oxygen. One passenger tells NBC she "thought the plane was going to break in half." The plane was diverted again, this time to Boston, where passengers weren't initially allowed off. "People were banging on the door," one passenger tells the Tribune. "The captain was advocating to let us go." They eventually got their wish, with many passengers giving up on the flight altogether and booking train tickets. By the time the flight finally made it to its destination Tuesday night, only the heartiest 90 of the original 160 or so passengers were on it. (In better air travel news, Airbus thinks it can ease jet lag.)

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