COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Passengers on a flight at Port Columbus sat in their plane on the runway for more than nine hours Wednesday after inclement weather caused icy conditions at the airport.
Terry Elkin and several other people boarded AirTran flight 373 Wednesday at about 7:30 a.m. headed for Orlando, NBC 4 reported.
According to Elkin, passengers were informed that the plane needed to be de-iced, but when the de-icing truck failed to arrive, passengers were allowed off the plane at about 10:45 a.m.
Shortly thereafter, passengers were allowed back on the plane, where they sat until about 4:30 p.m.
Passengers were given only one serving of water during the time period.
Passenger Julie Ralston was traveling with her family, including her 10-month-old daughter.
"We've got kids. They're getting antsy. We have a 10-month-old baby. She did well, but it was getting hot on the plane because they didn't have the engines running where you get cool air. So you're sitting three people in a seat and sitting with a baby and she's wallowing you to death and it's hot," Ralston said.
Passenger Terry Elkin also spoke about his experience.
"Being a guy in his early 60s, it was tough on me, but it was a lot rougher on the children. There were a lot of children on there, and I'm amazed at how good they were sitting there all that time. During that entire time, they came by once with water and there was no food offered," Elkin said.
Shortly before 5 p.m., passengers were told the airline was preparing to load them onto a different plane bound for Orlando.
NBC 4's Colleen Marshall spoke to an AirTran spokesperson Wednesday night. She asked whether the airline has a policy that people who have been waiting that long be offered food.
The spokesperson said passengers should not have been waiting that long. He said it was clearly a mistake.
AirTran told NBC 4 that the situation was caused by a plan that was coated in ice as well as an overeager crew trying to make sure the flight took off and landed in Orlando.
AirTran officials said they should have canceled the flight or at the very least removed passengers from the plane.
When AirTran headquarters staff realized what happened, they sent a plane from Atlanta to Columbus to transport passengers to Orlando.
The new flight was scheduled to arrive in Orlando at 8:11 p.m. and landed safely at 8:06 p.m.
Port Columbus used four full de-icing trucks in its attempt to remove ice from the original plane.
"Toward the end, I would say it was mutiny pretty much," Elkin said.
Stay with NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com for additional information.
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