Passengers shiver through 16-hour ordeal on Canadian tarmac

A medical emergency and a mechanical problem left passengers on a United Airlines flight stuck for about 16 hours on the frigid tarmac of a Canadian airport in the plane's barely heated interior, the CBC network reported.

United Flight 179 had taken off late Saturday from Newark, New Jersey en route to Hong Kong with about 250 passengers on board.

When a passenger suffered a medical problem the plane made an emergency landing at Goose Bay airport in Newfoundland and Labrador province, on Canada's east coast, the airline told CBC.

But after paramedics took him to hospital, the plane was unable to take off, reportedly because bitterly cold temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit) had caused a door to freeze.

One of the passengers, Sonjay Dutt, reached by phone, said the plane was under-heated and that the arrival of the food and coffee was not enough to appease increasingly angry passengers.

With no customs officers on duty overnight, passengers were forced to stay ..