Hawaiian Airlines San Jose-To-Maui Flight Forced To Land At Oakland For Repairs, Passengers Stuck Until Friday
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) -- Passengers on a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Mineta San Jose International Airport to Maui endured an 18-hour wait before their rerouted flight due to a mechanical issue parked them at Oakland International from Thursday night to Friday morning.
Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45, which left SJC at around 8:25 a.m. Thursday, circled in the air for about 90 minutes before heading towards Oakland and landing at 10:22 a.m.
An Oakland Airport spokesman did not characterize the landing as an emergency, saying the redirection to Oakland was to perform a specific repair not available at Mineta San Jose, and their was no emergency fire trucks on stand by at the Oakland airport.
There was no immediate word of what the mechanical issue was with the jet.
Passengers said they waited for several hours at Oakland, until they were told that they couldn't leave for Maui until 4:30 a.m. Friday morning.
"They said an hour to fix the plane. It turned into two, turned into three, turned into four and they were like 'we can't get you out of here,'" passenger Mayte Corral told KPIX 5.
"Unfortunately, they didn't tell us upfront we were not going to make the flight, otherwise we would've just made arrangements and gone home," passenger Janet Carmona said.
Among those stuck waiting Thursday night were 15 guests bound for Quyen Le's wedding on Saturday, including her father, David.
Le, of San Francisco, tweeted this message to Hawaiian Airlines:
Le told KPIX 5 over the phone that she is hoping her dad, mom, sisters and groomsmen would make it.
The flight finally departed for its original destination from Oakland Friday morning at 5 a.m.
