United Flight 4934: Passengers Fume After They Were Made To Wait On Tarmac For Six Hours


United Flight 4934, a routine flight from Kansas City to Denver, turned out to be a nightmare for all passengers and crew aboard. On Friday, Flight 4934, which is a routine morning flight from Kansas City operated by Republic Airlines, was made to land at Colorado Springs due to bad weather. However, the bad weather turned out to be the smallest of the problems the passengers aboard it had to face that day.

According to NBC News, after Flight 4934 made the unscheduled landing, passengers were made to sit inside the plane for an unbelievable six hours with little food or water. The flight, which was supposed to take off from Colorado Springs after the weather cleared, eventually did not take off and remained cancelled. Even worse, passengers on board were eventually asked to deboard and were informed that they would be taken to Denver on a bus.

According to Kathie Ridings, who was on board the plane, spoke to KOAA News after the harrowing incident.

“I feel like we’ve been hijacked, held hostage today, and there’s just been no sincere effort to help us. I’m just shocked.”

Another passenger on board Flight 4934 was Anderson Willms, who said, “I’m a little upset. I mean, we literally sat on the tarmac for six hours.”

According to officials, Flight 4934 was amongst several other flights that were diverted from Denver owing to bad weather. In fact, almost 50 flights bound for Denver were cancelled on Friday.

What made the situation even worse inside Flight 4934 was an announcement made by the crew after they had been on the tarmac for several hours. Passengers were told that those who wished to de-plane can do so — but they would forfeit their seats and would miss their connecting flights. They were also told that they would have to buy another ticket from Colorado Springs for their onward journey. Owing to this, several people chose to remain inside the plane. However, the flight was eventually cancelled and several passengers were given a bus to complete their trip. Flight 4934 had left Kansas City at its scheduled time of 6:21 a.m. By the time people got out of the aircraft, it was 1:20 p.m.

In a statement issued by Republic Airlines (operating as United Express), a spokesperson apologized to the passengers for the inconvenience and said United would be reaching out to them for refunds.

Republic apologizes for the inconvenience, but as always, the safety of our customers and crew is always our #1 priority.”

This incident aboard United Flight 4934 comes exactly one month after another United flight bound for Denver made an emergency landing after one of the passengers on board charged towards its cockpit, shouting “Jihad.”

[Image via Wikimedia Commons]

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