On 22nd August, an United Airlines B737 aircraft scheduled to fly from Newark to Denver taxied for so long at Newark Airport, that it eventually ran out of adequate fuel for the flight.
The Boeing 737-900ER was taxiing to fly to Denver. However, the plane stayed on the tarmac and taxiways for more than six hours before the flight got cancelled.
The initial delays were reportedly due to lightning and thunderstorms. Initially, the aircraft taxied for around 3 hours before returning to the gate. However, the aircraft continued taxiing for the next few hours.
Passenger Hiroko Tabuchi – "You can’t make this up.. my United flight out of Newark taxied on the tarmac for more than 6 hours and now **no longer has enough fuel** to get to Denver — so we are taxiing back to the terminal."
📹Hiroko Tabuchi @HirokoTabuchi#airlines #aircraft pic.twitter.com/gFesq4nTzj
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) August 23, 2022
As reported by Aviationa2z, in an announcement the captain said: “On top of taxiing for hours, air traffic control gave us a longer flight path to Denver to avoid lingering storms. Which all meant we didn’t have enough fuel left to make it there.”
Eventually, after remaining on the tarmac for another 8.5 hours, the flight was cancelled and passengers disembarked the aircraft.
“Oh my god, after 8.5 hours on the tarmac at Newark, and disembarking/reembarking/refuelling the plane, the flight is a no-go,” tweeted the New York Times reporter Hiroko Tabuchi.
“We are heading back to the gate a final time. This time, it’s the crew – they’ve clocked out. ‘I’ve run out of apologies,’ the pilot just told us.”
