Stranded Air France passengers begin returning home after emergency landing in Canada

SEATAC, Wash. — A flight from France turned into a travel nightmare. The passengers are still facing delays.

Some of the Air France passengers who probably never dreamed of visiting the Canadian Tundra, are back in Seattle this evening. Their days long ordeal finally over!

Those travelers left Paris, France, at 1:31 our time yesterday morning. They were scheduled to arrive here before noon. But the flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Northern Canada, after passengers reported a burning smell in the cabin.

That was at 8:44 a.m. And they were stuck there until 7:48 last night when they were finally flown to New York. They landed at JFK just before 11 last night... where they were stuck until 10:06 this morning, when some of them finally took off for Seattle.

A lot of relieved people now back at SEA. It was an incredible sight. Many of them have had just a few hours sleep. But all of them now have amazing stories to tell.

“I’m tired,” said Mark McDade, Seattle. “It took me 49 hours to get where I left to home. I’m glad to be home.”

McDade is one of scores of people with the same story, stranded on an Air France flight forced to make an emergency landing yesterday morning when passengers say a heat smell filled the cabin.

McDade says he did not smell smoke. “No, no,” he said. “But we lost all internal power. The plane didn’t lose any power. But like the lights and the seating and the audio and visual system. Everything went out in the entire plane. Yeah, we were at 38,000 feet somewhere in the Arctic.”

“Yeah, so we coasted in,” said Joe Skoog, Spokane. “Ah, they were very calm. Yeah, so we were all good. We were on day three of our flight.”

That direct flight from Paris, France, took an unexpected detour to Nunavut, in northern Canada.

Spanaway passenger Huck Finn, yes, that’s his given name, took a photograph of the disabled Boeing 787 Dreamliner as they were being bussed to the small terminal in that tiny town.

“Honestly, this isn’t the first emergency landing I’ve had,” he said, wryly. “So, I said, ‘Great. I get to add another one to my belt.’”

He and many others were taking it all in stride.

We have been telling you about Katherine Batey, the former metro bus driver who was also stranded.

Her daughter says her flight finally left JFK Airport at 5. She is expected to finally be back home at 11 o’clock tonight.

And not a moment too soon.

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