- United Airlines passengers will miss celebrating New Year's Eve due to a time-zone quirk.
- Their flight made an emergency landing, leaving them stranded in American Samoa for 21 hours.
United Airlines passengers will miss celebrating New Year's Eve after their flight made an emergency landing on a remote Pacific island.
The Guardian first reported the news.
The passengers were traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney on Friday when the Boeing 787-9 aircraft had to make an emergency landing at Pago Pago in American Samoa due to a "mechanical issue," according to the report.
—AIRLIVE (@airlivenet) December 30, 2022
The travelers will not get to celebrate the clock striking midnight on Saturday as the island is just east of the international date line. A replacement plane was due to depart at 3 .a.m. on December 31, but the time-zone quirk means the time would be just after 4 a.m. on Sunday, January 1 shortly after their departure.
The flight was due to land in Sydney at 7:15 a.m. on Sunday local time.
Some passengers talked to locals and took a tour of the island, but others complained about how long it took United to send another plane, The Guardian reported.
One newlywed passenger tweeted that she is starting her honeymoon "stranded" in Pago Pago because United couldn't get them a plane "for over 21 hours."
—Rick Lechtman (@rlechtman) December 31, 2022
Leonie Butta, whose son and two granddaughters were on the flight, told the newspaper she'd been tracking the flight online and praised United's decision to divert to Pago Pago.
A passenger's father tweeted that his daughter showered at the airport hangar, got an island tour and was "drinking beers on deserted beach." He also said: "Daughter on the flight, quite an adventurous day, they got a tour of the island, pilot bought them shots, drank beers on the beach. Ate at Micky D's, back at the hangar to chill out on the cots before getting on plane at 3am for flight to Sydney."
United Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.