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United Airlines passengers flying from Edinburgh Airport (EDI) to 
Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) last month endured a difficult delay brought on by a compounding series of setbacks. Firstly, the transatlantic flight was forced to divert to Austin Straubel International Airport (GRB) in Green Bay, Wisconsin, due to stormy weather, where passengers were held onboard the Boeing 757 for four hours before preparing to take off again for Chicago.
However, the situation worsened when the crew timed out on their duty limit while the aircraft was taxiing toward takeoff. Passengers were then reportedly left waiting outside on the tarmac for around five hours as customs officers were not available to process them.
United Passengers Stuck In Green Bay For Almost Nine Hours
The incident happened on July 27 amid a severe weather event around Chicago that produced seven tornadoes and wind gusts of over 100 mph. The flight was United’s daily UA119, operated by a 29-year-old Boeing 757-200 with the registration N14120. The international flight departed Edinburgh at 11:57 AM local time and was scheduled to land at Chicago O’Hare at 2:05 PM.
However, the storms sent it to Green Bay instead, about 175 miles north of Chicago. Passengers were first kept onboard the aircraft for around four hours, and the situation reportedly deteriorated fast. One passenger, Heather Fields, told ABC7 Chicago that supplies ran short during this initial wait on board, saying that “the bathrooms filled up, toilet paper ran low, and food ran out.”
The aircraft eventually began to taxi towards the runway, but the flight crew timed out, forcing it back to the tarmac. Everyone was then taken off the aircraft and made to wait outside the airport’s customs building for roughly five hours, as there were no US Customs and Border Protection officers available to process them. Fields said:
“We taxied to the runway and almost immediately the pilot announced that actually they had timed out, their FAA timeout, and that they weren’t going to be able to fly to Chicago. And they were going to need to take us off the runway and wait for a replacement crew.”
Green Bay’s CBP Office Had Already Closed
The fact that this was an international flight explains why passengers ended up waiting outdoors rather than inside a terminal. Green Bay is capable of taking international arrivals under regular circumstances, but its CBP office is only open during weekday business hours of 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM.
Although the flight initially landed in Green Bay just after 2:00 PM, passengers were kept onboard for almost four hours. By the time they had deplaned in the early evening, the local CBP office had already closed. Disembarking passengers initially assumed they would be processed in the customs building, but were told there were no officers available.
In a statement, a United spokesperson confirmed that officers “were unable to clear customers but allowed them to deplane on the tarmac into a controlled area.” According to flight tracking data, United had initially scheduled the repositioning flight from Green Bay to Chicago for 3:05 PM, but the 757 did not push back until 10:19 PM. The flight landed safely in Chicago at 10:55 PM following a 37-minute journey.
Crew Time-Out & Passenger Compensation
Flight crew duty limits in the US are laid out in 14 CFR Part 117, which caps a crew’s total duty period, typically allowing between nine and 14 hours on duty. Duty time continues while a diverted jet sits on the ground, so the four hours the 757 spent parked at Green Bay ultimately exceeded the crew’s limits.
Another United flight ran into a similar problem earlier this summer, when UA404 from 
Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) to 
Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) diverted to Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) on June 14 due to thunderstorms. The Boeing 737 MAX 9 was refueled and ready to depart Dulles at around 3:00 AM when the captain hit his duty limit, reportedly with a single minute to spare before takeoff.
As for passenger compensation, the fact that this flight was diverted due to adverse weather complicates matters. Airlines are not obliged to compensate passengers for weather delays, and passengers are only guaranteed a refund for canceled flights or if a passenger chooses not to travel because of a significant delay.
Fields, who was connecting to Denver and ultimately arrived around 20 hours behind schedule, said United initially offered her $200 in flight credit before raising this to $500. There are also tarmac delay rules set out under 14 CFR 259.4, which require carriers to allow international passengers to leave the aircraft before four hours have elapsed, to provide food and drinking water within two hours, and to keep lavatories in service throughout.
