A Delta Airlines flight supposed to leave St. Croix bound for Atlanta Thursday afternoon never left the ground, leaving passengers scrambling for hotel rooms.
A radar outage in Grand Turk delayed the plane overnight. It’s now scheduled to depart at 8 a.m. Friday.
DL1809 from Henry E. Rohlsen Airport to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport remained on St. Croix but the reason was not entirely clear to passengers Thursday evening.
Family members of a passenger wrote the Source saying they’d been told by the airline the flight would make a previously-unscheduled stop in Miami to refuel. That plan never happened, however, and passengers on the 2:25 p.m. flight were left waiting on the airplane for hours before the flight was canceled at 5:39 p.m., according to the website FlightAware.
Passengers were left on the aircraft for four hours, according to a passenger’s family, with multiple explanations for the delay texted from the airline.
Frederiksted-area hotels reported a welcome, if unexpected, influx of guests Thursday evening. Who will pay for those hotel rooms is one of many open questions.
Air traffic control towers on St. Croix and Atlanta did not immediately respond to phone calls Thursday night.
