Hundreds of passengers aboard two Delta Air Lines flights were trapped on board their aircraft overnight as their flights were diverted. They were both headed to Atlanta but wound up in Montgomery, Alabama instead during bad weather on Thursday night and into Friday morning.
Delta flight 1828 from Cabo and flight 599 from Mexico City both faced storms with lightning and high winds which disrupted their approach to Atlanta. Flight 599 landed at Montgomery around 10:20 p.m. while flight 1828 landed about 10 minutes later.
Montgomery isn’t staffed by U.S. customs and so passengers weren’t allowed off the aircraft, since they originated outside the United States, and so everyone had to spend the night on board.
- Passengers aboard Flight 599 remained confined to the plane from approximately 10:20 p.m. until 5:15 a.m.
- Those on Flight 1828 were forced to stay onboard from about 10:30 p.m. until 5:23 a.m.
- Customers were offered cookies and water
In the early morning passengers were allowed off of both aircraft and into a restricted area within the terminal that was guarded with controlled and monitored restroom access. At a minimum this should have been arranged the night before rather than trapping passengers onboard.
Meanwhile, flight crew timed out, exceeding legally permitted duty hours during the delay, and so new crews had to be brought in before flights could resume.
Delta says that they would have preferred to divert to Birmingham but it faced similarly severe weather as Atlanta. The airline has apologized that they’ve “fallen short” of their customer service expectations and reports having offered refunds.
One commentator speculated that the primary issue may have been Atlanta’s unwillingness or inability to retain CBP staff late into the night rather than solely weather-related conditions, suggesting operational shortcomings at Delta’s primary hub might have exacerbated the problem. While airlines can be fined for long tarmac delays (unless dictated by safety), it’s usually the airport or government security or immigration operations that are the root cause.
Sounds like they got DOGE’d. Get used to it. It’s only gonna get worse.
Why didn’t they all just leave…en masse? They can’t arrest all of you.
The government has hundreds of thousands of border patrol people and they couldn’t send a few to Montgomery to do passport checks.
A third world country indeed.
It is truly embarrassing to be an American.
@ Mary — Seriously? You actually think CBP agents could be just be called in the middle of the night to process passengers in a facility without the required IT at a location likely not near where they live? There’s alot more to a border crossing than agents simply looking at your passport.The passengers were stuck on the plane/at the airport for 12 hours not a week.
I am a nice person, I have traveled the world, I have witnessed the best airlines can do.
However I have also experienced the worst airlines can dish out, I have never stayed on a plane more than a couple hours in excess of what was scheduled. I would have got off the plane about say 11 pm It seems they decided with bad results on where to divert, not my fault or concern, open the damn door or have me do it and have to get your slides repacked before they could use that plane again, I also carried a cigar and lighter in a sealed container in my carry on, anyone want to join me for a smoke (penalty for lighting up on board, immediate removal from said plane!!)Dont try telling me oh you would go to jail, no not very likely the airline would rather this be quickly forgotten not blown all over morning tv as if they tried the jail card so would i illegal detaining me almost a mass kidnapping!! plus I was flying almost daily lots of status they really do try keeping cash cows coming back! remember the flight crew wants off also just make it easier for them to let folks off than keep them on! the trick airlines liked pulling was a bus to your destination hours late no luggage, and getting you there just in time to leave again!
“But, I never thought making it harder for people to come across the border would apply to ME…”
– Caroline CancunChristmases,] supporter of the “Make it harder for people to come across the border” party.
Don’t planes always have a planned diversion airport in their flight plan? Surely, there had to have been another airport within range with CBP facilities. I know my little regional airport has a diversion plan and even includes the phone numbers for the lead TSA agent and the lead CDP agent from the closest CDP office so arrangements can be made in a situation like this.
What about the passenger bill of rights and limit of 3 hours max? The same scenario happened repeatedly before lawmakers adopted the tramac delay measure.
@Tim Dunn @TexasTJ @Gene –
I was not blaming the current Administration or any that came before it. I meant what I said literally – this looks “like” something that happens when you have a small government, and if the small government people get their way, we’ll see a lot more of it, and worse.
Re: “You actually think CBP agents could be just be called in the middle of the night to process passengers in a facility without the required IT at a location likely not near where they live?”
Yes I do, because CBP agents are part of a federal government agency, such as FBI and ATF, and have both staff and resources to set up mobile border checks just anywhere at a short notice. They would also get extra pay for overtime and out-of-town service. When there’s a way, there’s a will.
@ Arturo — But why waste so much money for a mere 300 passengers? That would be a prime example of government waste.
West Coast Flyer is clearly a deluded moron and cockwomble.
Well, is this a Delta failure or a Montgomery failure? It is central Alabama, so maybe it took them that long to figure it out.
It’s a heartless government failure. But if you’re Elon Musk flying back into the US on a private jet to a US airport without CBP always there, CBP can remotely clear you — and Musk has a history of illegal drug use. [And this is even before Musk became the de facto adopted child of the US’s mad king.]
@Gene.
>: “You actually think CBP agents could be just be called in the middle of the night to process passengers in a facility without the required IT at a location likely not near where they live?”
Absolutely. That is their job.
And you bet that if they spot a trans breach the southern border they would be shaken out of bed and mobilized in mass to catch him.
But when it comes to liberate American citizens trapped in the “great nation of the free”, crickets — thou shall not be free.
Utter failure of an inept government to serve its citizens.
Who cleared an international flight to land at Montgomery? That is who I would hold responsible. But will they get fired? Will anyone be held accountable? I guess if you can text out attack plans hours ahead of time to private citizens and lie about it and keep your job, pretty much anyone nowadays doesn’t have to worry about getting fired for anything.
I would have called 911 and said that I was having a medical emergency!
Oh my God! Cookies and water? People in our country better toughen up. There People out there who are really suffering. People who have suffered. This is called an inconvenience.
The article says that Montgomery airport does not have CBP facilities or personnel as they are apparently not an international airport. So there are no CBP airport staff they could call in to process passengers. They could have possibly flown to Charlotte, but may not have had enough fuel to make it there. Not sure what other diversion airports they could have gone to – New Orleans?
@ Shawn — People should be fired for safely landing planes in an emergency? Get a clue.
@ Mary — You are clueless.