An El Al flight from New York to Tel Aviv made an unexpected stop in Canada on Sunday night when technical difficulties forced the Boeing 747 jet to land in Goose Bay in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Flight ELY008, which left John F. Kennedy International Airport at 1 a.m. on its way to Israel, landed in Goose Bay where it was met by emergency and rescue service crews.
A passenger told the Hebrew-language news site 0404 that he felt the entire plane shake in the air.
The plane was stuck on an icy tarmac for 12 hours after the pilots sent out a distress signal while flying over the Atlantic Ocean.
Eventually, though, a replacement plane was sent from JFK to Goose Bay, which usually serves passengers flying to local destinations like Halifax International Airport or Gander International Airport, among others.
Jacob Barker, a video-journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, tweeted a video showing passengers debarking the original plane and loading onto the replacement jet to continue their journey.
According to the airport’s flight information, the replacement plane landed in Canada just before 4 p.m. local time and departed for Ben Gurion Airport at 8:25 p.m. local time. The flight was scheduled to arrive at 9:45 a.m. local time in Tel Aviv.
According to Weather.com, passengers had to brave temperatures of -10 degrees Fahrenheit, with wind chills resulting in what felt like -32 degrees, when transferring planes.
(JPost.com)