An SAS Scandinavian Airlines flight from New York to Copenhagen was forced to divert to a Canadian military base, leaving passengers stranded overnight before the airline dispatched a rescue jet to retrieve them.
Flight SK910, an Airbus A330-300, departed Newark Liberty International Airport at 5:47 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, bound for Denmark.
But after three and a half hours in the air, the plane diverted northwest and landed safely at Goose Bay Airport in Labrador, Canada, at 9:15 p.m. local time (AST), according to FlightAware data.
It is unclear what led to the unscheduled landing. SAS did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
As one of the last airports before crossing the Atlantic, Goose Bay is frequently used as a diversion site for transatlantic flights, but offers limited passenger facilities.
On Monday, SAS sent an unloaded Airbus A330, operating as flight SK9201, from Copenhagen to Goose Bay, seemingly to rescue the stranded passengers. It took off from Copenhagen at 10:55 a.m. local time on Monday, landing just after midday in Goose Bay, per Flightradar24 data.
“A presumably very light SAS A330 has been scrambled to fly to Goose Bay to pick up stranded passengers,” Flightradar24 posted on X.
The plane took off again for Copenhagen at 7:15 p.m. local time, landing in the Danish capital around 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning. As such, passengers from flight SK910 were stranded in Goose Bay for around 22 hours, also arriving 22 hours late at their destination.
It is unclear whether the passengers were accommodated inside the military base — though in a similar 2023 incident, 270 Delta passengers stranded in Goose Bay were housed overnight in military barracks.
Goose Bay’s population is roughly 8,000, and its limited civilian infrastructure often leaves diverted passengers waiting for replacement aircraft or crew to arrive from elsewhere.
The original plane was still on the ground in Goose Bay as of 5 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
