‘We just had to wait’: Several flights diverted to Boston due to weather leaving passengers stranded

It was no way to end a European trip. Several United Airlines flights diverted to Boston Saturday evening -- because of bad weather over United’s international hubs at Newark and Washington Dulles.

Iza Perales was one of those caught up in the mid-summer meltdown. She was supposed to land in Newark from Lisbon, Portugal.

“My final destination is Houston,” said Iza Perales. “We circled New York for at least two and a half hours. The pilot comes on and says, we’re running out of fuel and that all flights out of New York LaGuardia and JFK had been canceled.

So the plane diverted to Boston. And that’s when the travel nightmare began.

“We’re on the tarmac for five hours before we’re deplaned,” she said. “No luggage, no information until midnight when they said we don’t have customs agents and we don’t have baggage people from United to take your luggage off of the airplane.”

Perales wound up booking a hotel room but was back in Logan early Sunday morning to try to get on a flight to Newark.

She was hardly alone. A long line of diverted passengers moved through a line that crawled to an uncertain -- and sometimes disappointing finish line.

“They said we had a flight to Newark at 11 a.m.,” said Pedro Alfaro, who came in on a United flight from Stockholm with a final destination of El Salvador. “But apparently when we go and talk with the agent, we don’t have a flight at all.”

United Airlines tells Boston 25 News that passengers affected by the weather diversions received meal and hotel vouchers. But several passengers said they received no such vouchers. Another said he received no vouchers, but that may have been because he refused to stand in an hours-long line to get them.

Alfaro did get a meal and hotel vouchers from United, he said. That may be because another reason for his flight diverting to Boston was, he said, that one of the pilots got sick. United Airlines has not confirmed that.

Four passengers told Boston 25 News that they endured four to five hours on the tarmac before disembarking at Logan.

“For five hours, no information, no one came to explain anything to us,” said Yacine Manet, who was trying to get to Montreal. “We just had to wait there. Barely had some food. Barely had some drinks. It was really crazy.”

Those tarmac wait times would appear to violate federal rules that limit the detaining of passengers to three hours, though there can be exceptions.

“On Saturday, August 3, United flights UA169 (Venice – New York/Newark), UA55 (Paris – New York/Newark), and UA65 (Lisbon – New York/Newark) diverted to Boston due to adverse weather conditions,” United said in a statement.

United also tells Boston 25 that United flight UA69 from Stockholm to New York/Newark) operated with a planned extra stop in Boston to allow for a crew change due to the illness of a flight crew member. While in Boston, the flight was eventually canceled due to adverse weather conditions.

“Passengers on each of these four flights were provided with meal vouchers and hotel accommodation, and we are working to get them to their final destinations as soon as possible,” the statement said.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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