At roughly 7:30 pm last night a Boeing 737 United Airlines Flight 1763 along with several other flights from Ravn (Era) Alaska and two other Alaska Airlines jetliners were diverted from Ted Stevens International Airport to the Kenai Airport due to bad weather.
We spoke with United Airlines passenger Robert Laker who chronicled the flight.
Laker: “We’re circling over Anchorage for half an hour and we were informed we couldn’t land because of blizzard conditions so they diverted us here to Kenai and we touched down here around 7:30. We then sat here for 4 hours every half hour we would be given an update and it just kept changing and changing, we never got the fuel we were expecting and after 4 hours of waiting the captain and the crew I guess by law they said they had to get rest and so that’s when we were then let off the plane at around 11:30 last night.”
We also spoke to passenger Ed Hanrhan who said he felt abandoned by United Airlines.
Hanrhan: “Then they said we’re going to get hotels for everybody, we’re going to have to get off the plane the crew timed out so we all come in here, next thing you know they crew comes in here and they left to go to a hotel and they pretty much abandoned us I mean theres no United representatives in the airport no one has shown up from united.”
Dispatcher Sean Conway with Alaska Cab said as soon as they heard the flights were grounded, they dispatched drivers to the Kenai Airport.
Conway: “When we heard that multiple commercial flights were being grounded at the Kenai Airport bound for Anchorage we knew that we would may be able to service some of those passengers. Our fleet was on standby through the night which did result in two of our vehicles being dispatched up to the Anchorage airport.”
According to passengers, some nearby hotels sold out of rooms quickly forcing passengers to stay in the airport.
Ruthie Anderson with Ravn Aviation talked about what their crew did throughout the night for the passengers.
Anderson: “We’re not just going to leave them stranded, are you kidding me? So I went home last night, got a bunch of pillows and blankets and pillows, brought them back and as you can see got them all stocked up and taken care of.”
Odie’s deli reported that early this morning United Airlines bought the passengers breakfast while they continued to wait for to hear when they would be allowed to board the plane to get to Anchorage.
It’s at this point details became confusing for the passengers as they were receiving news that the plane would be leaving at specific times though that time kept getting pushed back, they were also alerted of the fact that to board the plane again the passengers would have to pass through a TSA screening.
We spoke to passenger Joan Hanrhan who was still waiting to leave the Kenai Airport.
Hanrhan: “They said that we’re going to be delayed because there’s no TSA agent in this airport and this is a commercial flight and we need a TSA agent. I guess the TSA agency is saying that now its become a charter flight and we don’t need a TSA agent so meanwhile we we’re supposed to take off at 12 and now its 12:45 and it could be even longer to work through the mess.”
Passengers were attempting to book flights elsewhere to get to Anchorage but there were no available flights that would have departed any earlier.
We spoke to passenger Robert Laker once again prior to boarding the plane who said Ravn (Era) Aviation and the staff at the Kenai Airport were most helpful during their long wait.
Laker: “There’s probably 200 people here that would love to give credit to Era (Ravn) and Ruthie and the people of Kenai who came though and brought us blankets, pillows, water, food they actually took care of us when we were abandoned and for the last 12 hours they’re the people that really helped us out, the local people here gave us shelter.”
The United Airlines flight 1763 passengers finally boarded their plane once again at 1:45 pm and left the Kenai Airport bound for Anchorage at 2:05 and safely arrived at Ted Stevens International Airport at 2:30 this afternoon.
