A Delta commercial airlines.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Passengers onboard a Delta Airlines flight leaving from Ghana to the United States of America were in for a horrendous experience as it had to take a detour and make an emergency landing due to an oxygen malfunction on the plane. The flight Delta 157 made an emergency landing at Lajes Air Base International Airport on Terceira Island in the early hours of Saturday, according to a report on Pulse.
The matter came out in the open after one of the passengers, Nana Asante-Smith posted a long note about the ordeal she and her fellow passengers had to go through on the return journey from the US on September 8. She, along with her friends and family, had travelled to Ghana on August 30 to attend a ball.
She begins the note by saying how the plane took a right turn unexpectedly just five hours into the journey and was diverted due to a technical glitch, as announced by the pilot. Nana writes that the inflight entertainment system’s route changed and the destination was showing up as Terceira Island, Portugal instead of John F. Kennedy International Airport.
“I walked to the back of the plane twice to ask the flight attendants what was going on. They reassured me that everything was just fine and that the oxygen was low in the cockpit,” she wrote. However, she elaborates that the real trouble started after they landed safely on the island.
“After we disembarked from the plane, we were led to shuttle buses that took us to the airport. We were directed to a partitioned section of the building without access to freely move around the airport because those with Ghanaian passports did not have the requisite visas. The crew members were shuttled to a hotel, not to be seen again. From that point, we never heard from or saw a Delta representative in any official capacity.”
Nana says that the only interaction possible was with the representatives at the airport who informed the passengers that a plane from Boston would fly them out soon. She also says that there was no access to food and they had to beg for it at one point. After a while, they were given ham sandwiches (which many couldn’t eat due to dietary restrictions).
What’s startling is that, even after all that the passengers had been through, they were asked not to start a “revolution” by the airport officials.
The stranded passengers were flown out after almost 12 hours but their luggages were not carried on the same plane.
Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie, who was onboard the flight also posted on X saying that he missed his event in Detroit due to the emergency landing.
Nana calls out Delta Airlines in her post for its disregard for the state of its passengers and for deserting them in their time of need and says they were "treated like encroaching roaches" by airport officials.