When it comes to flying, we all know that sometimes things don’t go as planned. Weather, technical issues, or even medical emergencies can cause flights to be diverted unexpectedly. Diversions can be inconvenient, stressful, or downright frustrating. So, we want to know: what’s the worst diversion you’ve ever experienced?










69 Responses
2011 or so. I went to St. Louis MO for a quick day trip. Couple of hours up from DFW. Couple hours back. 5 days later I get back home after 4 nights in a hotel in Columbus OH. Snow rolled in through DFWto St. Louis to Columbus and even though I was a high mileage customer couldn’t get a flight home earlier.
Hamburg-Manchester got diverted to Stansted at first before being told we were above the MLW and we ended up in billund leading to a 2 day delay
Worst ever on several levels. A flight attendant tragically passed in flight, leaving Venice for PHL. We diverted into DUB.
RIP Carol.
How very sad. How old was the lady?
I think she was 64
Terrible. FA s should be able to retire at 55 max.
When was this?
Diversion out of VCE, as a passenger into DUB. A flight attendant passed in flight. RIP Carol.
Just this Christmas, we were due to fly Glasgow to Auckland via Frankfurt and Vancouver ( we were going to have 3 nights in Vancouver as a stopover). Due to airline issues, and the weather, we ultimately flew Edinburgh to Frankfurt- missed our connectionto Vancouver due to late arrival in Frankfurt, forcing us to overnight in Frankfurt, and then on to Auckland via Shanghai China!
I think getting diverted the other way around the planet wins most times!
I had a similar experience! Flying from Orlando to Singapore. Original itinerary was MCO, ATL, LAX, Singapore. Due to issues with the onboard toilets, I ended up flying MCO, ATL, JFK, Frankfurt then on to Singapore. The luggage took the original route and arrived about 20 hours later! When I finally got back to ATL, my flight was delayed due to uncooperative winds so we missed our scheduled flight to MCO. I wasn’t worried, I was a premium Frequent Flyer. But I watched 3 flights leave without my wife and me. Finally got home! Best part of the trip was a 48 hour birthday as we crossed the IDL, the Singapore Airlines brought out cake and Champagne for us to celebrate!
I also got stuck in Toronto overnight on a different flight due to the length of time waiting for deicing and then a slot to take off. Crew had timed out during the 4 hours we sat on the flightless!
Don’t forget 8 hours in Jamaica waiting for parts, then 4 hours in a Miami hotel waiting for the the next flight.
Well over 20 years ago now. Flying from Scotland to Syria. Too much fog at Damascus airport to land so we diverted to Jordan. Later, cleared for take off but a fault was discovered with the plane before takeoff. Several hours later we were eventually loaded onto buses and driven back to Damascus from Amman.
Thomas Cook flight from Vegas to Glasgow diverted to Winnipeg after a passenger died in their seat an hour into the flight. RIP. 2hrs on the ground in YWG took off with pilot request inf ATC clearance straight to Glasgow but failing that we’d prob divert to NYC. Aside the obvious tragedy on board I was absolutely buzzin at the thought of a free layover in the big apple. Long story short, the crew ran out of hours and we diverted to Iceland where we were stuck for 18 hrs in a freezing dull unfriendly airport with a £10 voucher
Flying DFW to HKG in 2019 on AA, and having to divert to Seoul because we didn’t have enough fuel (it was American’s longest flight at 16+ hours and we had heavy headwinds). The chaos of 200+ people with no visas showing up in a foreign country, needing hotels and everything that goes with it. Not to mention coming in to land right next to NK with a big American flag on the tail of the aircraft… 🙂
Flew Florence to Amsterdam and diverted to Munich. It was during the World Cup and Amsterdam closed due to weather. The preferred alternate airport (Frankfurt) closed due to a game, so had to fly further away. Spent the night in a free cheapie hotel provided by KLM then flew in the morning.
Continental airlines 777 from San Francisco to Tokyo-Narita diverted to Midway Islands due to engine failure over the Pacific Ocean! Slept in an army bunker for a night until a replacement jet carried us on to Narita.
CSN – travelling CAN – BKK
We were in sight of BKK to the point that we could actually see movements on all runways out our window. We were already 3 hours late ex CAN. At the last moment the pilot devices to divert to SGN.
A 3 hour flight took 8 all up
Circa 1997 a Skywest flight, ONT to LAX, about a 40 mile flight, was released by TMU. They did NOT check with the LAX arrival sector to see if there was room. It is IFR at LAX and it is the morning arrival rush, so Skywest departs via route on V16 to LAHAB intersection. There is no room at LAX due to aircraft arriving for far away lands, so Skywest holds for 45+ minutes, then diverts to PSP about 100+ miles east of LAHAB and LAX. It refuels then is cleared back to LAHAB. It holds another 20 minutes before there is enough to get into LAX. 2 hour delay + fuel + crew time pay, everyone on Skywest misses there outbound flights from LAX so all passengers are delayed, Skywest is hugely delayed, all because TMU couldn’t be bothered to see if there was space available at LAX.
Incredible delay of somewhere around 3 1/2 hours for a 20-30 minute flight.
Got caught in an Air Canada strike in 1998. The rebooking by Air Canada through other airlines had me visit 9 airports, with 7 flights, on 8 different airplanes – all within 30 hours. Started in Charlottetown, PEI; flew to Halifax; flew to Montreal Dorval; flew to Toronto Island airport; took bus to Toronto Pearson; flew to Winnipeg; flew to Regina; stayed overnight; flew to Calgary; boarded for the flight to Edmonton, but there was a mechanical problem; transferred to another plane and finally flew to Edmonton.
Are you good?
What plane was is best?
Paris to Atlanta on a 777 delayed to problems with toilets. One hour into flight, Captain announces that we divert to Gatwick to repair toilets. After a couple of hours, trucks pull up to plane. People came on board carrying 2-liter bottles of water, giving two bottles to each passenger. Captain announces that the water is primarily for toilet flushing! We resume flight. Observe people walking toward toilets with bottle in hand. I drank half of mine but never needed the other half.
1985 Pacific Western Airlines – Planned Edmonton to Resolute Bay. 737 Freighter with 30 seats. Flight route Edmonton- Yellowknife (fuel) – Cambridge Bay (several hour hold)- Resolute Bay (missed approach in fog) – Yellowknife (delay and change planes) – Resolute Bay (fog did not attempt approach) – Yellowknife (fuel) -Edmonton. 19 hours and back in the same place. 4 days later, full plane of passengers, bright sunny day, smooth landing, no luggage…
Departed Queenstown NZ bound for Australia at start of journey to Manchester UK via Dubai, mechanical fault during first leg caused diversion to Auckland NZ. Was transferred to AirNZ route LA -London with a domestic hop to Manchester, arrived 1/2 hour earlier than original itinerary having gone the other way round the world!
In August 2022 we were booked on Lufthansa Manchester- Munich connecting Munich-Venice to meet a cruise ship docked at Ravenna Italy. On reaching Munich the connection to Venice was cancelled, we were rerouted Munich- Frankfurt connecting Munich to Venice on reaching Frankfurt the connection to Venice was cancelled, we were then rerouted to Bologna ( the closest airport to our ship at Ravenna). This flight circled Bologna and due to a thunderstorm returned us to Frankfurt. By this time we had been at airport gates or in the air from 7am until 11pm we were given a hotel bed until 6am the following day when we were routed Frankfurt-Naples which we reached minus our luggage which they had unsurprisingly lost.
During Covid I Spent 7+ hours in an airline hotline to rebook my canceled flight. That happened 3 days in a row. I ended up on the first flight after several lockdowns from FRA to LAX. Being the first passenger going through security for months at FRA as well. Crazy times.
Stuck on runway at YYZ for 6 hours before 35 min flight to YOW.
14 hours YYZ-YYZ round trip: YYZ to YHZ attempted landing at YHZ twice before diverting to YUL and ultimately ending back at YYZ.
Some time in the ’80s I was flying Bangkok to Kathmandu. There is a pass on the journey that Thai Airways would only fly on VFR and that pass was full of cloud. We diverted to Calcutta and spent the day in the transit lounge. Let’s just say it was an experience. Flew back to Bangkok and spent the night in a hotel and lined up with same crew and had a successful flight to Kathmandu.
Fortunately, my only diversion.
In 1987 I was flying from New York into Heathrow for the first time, scheduled to arrive on what turned out to be the morning after the Great Storm of 1987.
The plane was temporarily diverted to Prestwick Airport. During the landing, the passenger next to me was able to see and point out to me his home, as that was his intended final stop.
I’ll never forget the fraught onward journey from Heathrow onto my relative’s place in Frome, Somerset. It took all day and I witnessed the devastation of the storm first hand.
In 1970 I had booked a charter flight from AMS to JFK. The aircraft was a Bristol Britannia from DIA (Donaldson International Airways). Due to technical problems the aircraft arrived in AMS many hours late. The captain explained that the weather radar was broken and that we would therefore have to fly to LGW for repairs. There we had to get out and wait 2 to 3 hours until the repairs were done. We then flew off to YQX (Gander Newfoundland), but over Ireland an engine failed and you could see the stationary propeller. We then flew back to LGW and landed with the fire brigade driving parallel to the runway. We were taken by bus to a hotel in Brighton and then half a day later were picked up after another aircraft from DIA, also a Bristol Britannia, was arrived. After about 10 hours of flying we landed in Newfoundland, where we walked around between the planes, the runway and the airport building because we were told that there were no takeoffs or landings planned. After another 5 hours of flying we landed at JFK.
In the 1970s I was due to fly MAN-ZRH-TIP on Swissair. We departed MAN on time but diverted to GVA dur to fog at ZRH. When finally allowed to disembark we were flown GVA-ZRH with the assurance that the ZRH-TIP flight was being held for us. It wasn’t. After an overnight in Zurich we were re-routed ZRH-GVA-TUN-TIP. We boarded for the first leg only to be disembarked immediately to get lunch in the airport as GVA was fog-bound and catering was due to be loaded there. We boarded again after a splendid lunch and as we were climbing out of ZRH, GVA opened so we descended for a landing. The first approach was aborted due to minimums but second time around we were successful. After collecting passengers and departing GVA we were running well behind schedule. As we taxied in at at TUN we could see the TIP flight departing. Visiting the Swissair office we were told that no seats were available until Monday (this was Friday) and we were given rooms in the Hilton. On Saturday morning the three of us on this trip spoke with Swissair again and they put us on a waitlist with yet another airline and provided us with transport to the airport to try our luck. For once Lady Luck was smiling on us and we got the last three seats on that flight to TIP.
On and yes I was affected by the Heathrow fire today. Our flight from Singapore was diverted to Gatwick where we spent over 5 hours waiting for our bags to be delivered from the aircraft.
I had an United flight from amsterdam to new york when we had a problem so we landed in iceland, way to cold
Here’s an ancient one for you. In 1990 on the Concorde from Paris to New York. We experienced a “pompage” over the mid-Atlantic which required shutting down one of the four engines.
The plane then had to continue at sub-sonic speed and then required a refueling stop in Gander, Newfoundland. We arrived in New York in 7.5 hours rather than the normal 3.5.
To this day I am not sure what a pompage is.
But the French cabin staff eased the pain with Champagne, Foie Gras and Remy Martin Cognac. Vive La France.
Pompage is French for Surging.
There you go. Clear as JP4.
Not the worst but the most interesting for me. 20 min or so from landing at our destination (SFO), from Oahu, and I see the screen in front of me flip 90 degrees and changes destination to LAX. Captain came on and said that we were diverting to LAX, SFO is closed. Thinking earthquake or something, my son checked online and said that an airplane crashed on approach. It was Asiana 214 triple 7 that smacked the backend on the runway. So after landing in LAX, my uncle that lived in W Hollywood came out to the airport and had some eats with us. There were no flights to anywhere close to SMF where we live. Finally, after being put up in a sleezy motel in Inglewood overnight, they said the only flight close was SJO. So we took it, one of my daughters lives in Santa Clara, picked us up at SJO, had lunch, then took us over to the train station. Met up with my sons girlfriend who lived in San Jose, and she joined us for the train trip up to Sacramento, where my other daughter picked us up and drove us to our home in the Sierra foothills. By the time we got home, the Hawaiian vacation vibe had abandoned us. Sorry this is so long.
I was supposed to fly on a TWA L1011 from Gatwick to Philadelphia but one passenger didn’t board although he’d checked a suitcase and it was in the baggage compartment. Oh, Oh.
The airport paged the guy over and over and got no response so all the luggage was unloaded onto the tarmac. TWA should have evacuated the plane but didn’t so I got to watch security people gingerly looking at name tags in a hodgepodge of hundreds of bags.
You could tell when one of them found it; everyone else backed away, except for us in the plane. Then what looked like a hockey goalie waddled up and walked away with it.
I saw someone in the glass tunnel running toward us and waving what had to be a boarding pass while they were throwing our bags back in the plane Yup, you guessed it, the missing passenger. He sure didn’t get to board; they probably arrested him. If he had, we’d have killed him.
So what does all that have to do with diversion? Well, they finished loading the luggage, but someone slammed the hatch and broke the latch. That’s right, a broken hatch latch and nobody had a spare anywhere.
You can’t have your L1011 flying across the Atlantic with the luggage hatch flapping so TWA had to put me up in a seedy airport hotel and I flew home the next day on the same plane.
Flew AS PDX-PSP a few weeks ago. There were very strong winds at PSP so we aborted landing a few hundred feet off the ground due to a wind-shear alert and flew to LAX. We were on the ground there about an hour. 18 people Including a family of five insisted on getting off the plane as they were too scared to make another attempt to land at PSP. One father reported his kids were terrified by the previous landing attempt. The wind-shear alert triggered some maintenance issues which were fixed relatively quickly and the pilot decided to try to go back to PSP and try to land again. We did a wide circle around the Coachella Valley. Coming down was extremely rough. I fly a lot and normally don’t get nervous, but I was even a bit scared. The person behind me kept on repeating “Oh s**t!” as we were landing. Just a few hundred feet off the ground, the pilot again aborted and we flew back to LAX landing just before midnight where we were told there were no more flights to PSP so we were on our own. I rented a car and arrived in Palm Springs around 0215! Wild night.
Got stranded in scranton airport just trying to get home to my son for Christmas who was alone in the house in Chicago.
Flew Gatwick to Manchester but it snowed at Manchester so we flew around in the hold for an hour and then went all the way back to Gatwick.
It’s not a big one but London to Toulouse with Ryanair, usually the flight is around 1h26 minutes, but with the diversions it took 2h in total to reach my hometown. I hate to fly more than 2h it’s too long for me ahahaha
We were at a friend’s wedding in Portugal. We had flown EasyJet Luton-Lisbon. As we were in the lakeside ceremony waiting for the bride to arrive, several peoples phones pinged texts from EasyJet with cancellations for the following day due to baggage handler strikes at Lisbon. Did I mention this was our first ever overseas flight? By the time the bride got there several of us had managed to book flights on TAP Lisbon – Heathrow, arriving in the UK earlier than our booked EasyJet flight. We had a lift from the bride’s uncle to his house in Surrey, where our son collected us and drove us to Luton to get our car. We’ve flown several times since and that experience set us up not to worry about delays and cancellations – there’s always a way!
Indianapolis to Chicago O’Hara. Diverted around a squall line of Thunderstorms, flying to St. Louis then into Chicago. Missed my connecting flight to San Diego. Spent the night in a drafty and cold terminal to be given a voucher for free breakfast to Mc Donald’s the following morning. Caught the first non-stop flight out.
Minor one compared to some of the great stories here – flew from Birmingham to Glasgow but due to high winds, we got to decision height twice and both times aborted before heading back to BHX. On landing, the lead cabin crew forgot we hadn’t gone anywhere and said “Welcome to Birmingham – we hope you take a chance and fly with us again” before realising what she said and emphasised “we hope you GET the the chance to fly with us again’
Adelaide to Bali got 1 hour out of Bali on a 6 hour flight, turned around due to volcano, sat at Darwin for 2 hours not allowed to get off plane, sent to Cairns had to get to domestic plane and back to Adelaide disastrous
Flying from Mumbai India (BOM) to Cairo Egypt (CAI) in January 2023 on an Egypt Air 737. Normal block time is 5h 35m, but encountered 250+ knot headwinds all the way over Saudi Arabia just after Dhahran. Aircraft needed to divert to Sharm El Sheikh (SSH) to refuel before continuing onwards to Cairo. Added almost 4 hours to the flight duration, headwinds and refueling combined. Uncomfortable, due to redeye timings and aircraft size.
When I worked for TW at MDW we would get a fair number of TW and DL diversions when ORD was closed. On one date the weather at ORD was so bad that a CO DC-9ex COS landed at MDW, where CO operated no scheduled service. Their flight was serviced by NW.
When American Airlines had just started flying SJC to NRT, the MD 11’s that they had ordered had not arrived yet so they had to use DC 10s. The runway at SJC wasn’t long enough for a fully loaded DC 10, so we flew from San Jose to Oakland, refueled, and then on a longer runway, took off to NRT.
Many years ago, I was in the upper deck of a United 747–400 flying from SFO to NRT. The headwinds were especially strong that day and we diverted to Sapporo CTS. UA wouldn’t let us off the airplane because it was going to be just a refueling stop and Immigration had gone home. There was no English speaking ground crew available, and the only bilingual flight attendants were dealing with all the paperwork downstairs. One FA knew I was fully bilingual and told me to stand in the cockpit and interpret between the captain and the fueling team. That was certainly exciting.
Dec.2017 we flew Hong Kong (to Vancouver) but Cathay Pacific routed us to New York instead–as we had booked our flight through British Air and they couldn’t change a points trip. Two hours from New York they diverted to Toronto because of a weather “B*mb Cyclone”. A 25 hour wait in Toronto, no hotels available anywhere. Then as the storm abated, back to New York–LA Guardia, truly a horrendous experience! Another 25 hour wait, as 2000 flights were cancelled/delayed. Lots of homeless people sleeping on the Departure floors, overflowing washrooms, etc. Another 25 hour wait! (50+ hours wait total.) Cathay finally upgraded us to Business Class, which allowed access to their lounge + food. No compensation, (other than the last-minute upgrade) as this disaster was “weather related”. Truly a trip to remember…
Vancouver – Sydney for a work’s conference in April, 2024. About 7 hours in to a 12 hour flight, awoke to the flight map revised destination of Honolulu with ETA of 3hrs and 20 mins.. The map showed a red ‘V’ shape for our flight path. The plane was dark with 90% of pax asleep. Found a flight attendant who advised we had a mechanical issue and needed to divert to Hawaii. 2 days in HNL and only missed the 1st day of the conference. Likely the happiest diversion story on this thread….
My worst experience was with cathay pacific. The flight was ok and the Food also but the women behind me was like kicked the seat because I only went down the seat to sleep. And it gets worse . At the airport in Hongkong some evend can’t speak English. For me i had a better experience with china eastern air.
Not a diversion but an extended route from Dakar to Monrovia via the coastal route, staying well off Guinea’s waters to avoid being chased by MIG fighters. Senegal and Guinea presidents were not on speaking terms..
Turkish Airlines – Ankara to Gatwick – Feb 2020. Plane aborted landing due to storm Dennis and diverted to Charles De Gaulle.
No announcement from the pilots at any point. Only worked out where we work going from entertainment screen map.
Worked for an airline in 80’s/90’s.Flew standby to a freinds wedding in Wester Mass USA and onto Las Vegas for a few days.We were trying to get back to JFK but everything was full.After a full day going from airline to airline , AA offered tickets to Dalls and said we’d have a better chance from there.So did an overnight in Dallas,then spent two days trying to get to JFK.A check in asistant took pity on us because we we exhausted and gave us two full fare ticets to La Guardia.Looķed at the arrival time and all was looking good to get a taxi to JFK.Not so.A massive thunderstorm over New York had us circling for 45 minutes before landing.By the time we got to JFK we’d missed the flight by an hour.Another unplanned overnight and eventually got the flight home next evening.In all it took,taking the time zones into consideration,about 4 /5 days to get home.The flights might have been cheap but the hotels weren’t.
Ryanair from Dublin to Stuttgart in 2018. We left Dublin too late and it was clear to me that we wouldn’t make the curfew in STR. We diverted to Hahn (Frankfurt/Hahn, as they call it, gave some people hope we would land in Frankfurt 😆 ) and than after a chaotic wait with no input from Ryanair, we were bussed to Stuttgart and arrived approx 6 hours later. I had to take Ryanair to court (via flightright.de ) to get my compensation after 1 year…
For me I was literally just in a diversion. My flight with Wizz Air got diverted because of a fire or something in the cockpit. It was a bit scary hearing that but we landed safely and we all survived.
2010 Icelandic volcano caused most European flights to be grounded. I was on Singapore Airlines on the way to Manchester with a stop in Munich. In Munich I was told that the plane won’t continue to Manchester, BUT they had a solution for me. Singapore Airlines had a arranged for a taxi to bring me to Manchester, a 1600km (1000 miles) drive and crossing the North Sea from Belgium to England on a ferry. They went the extra mile to bring me at my destination.
Pellston Michigan to Orlando Fl. Sounds easy.
The summer all the Crowdstrike update computers went down.
2 nights/ 46 hours ! In Detroit airport .
No hotels , $10 vouchers. Should have driven but all rental agencies applied a $2000 out of state return knowing what people would do.
DFW to LGW on a DC10. Fog at LGW – diverted to Newcastle (UK). Short runway. Had to reverse over the end of the runway! Flight crew duty hours expiring. Did get to LGW!
LGA IND MKE – LaGuardia to Milwaukee (one stop Indianapolis) – US 20+ years ago
First leg fine. Took off from IND – pilot announced thunderstorms but would try to punch through. After no openings, passengers informed diversion to GBR Green Bay. 40 minutes later, informed airplane didn’t have enough fuel so would divert to FWA Fort Wayne. Pilots timed out, so we were booked i to airport Holiday Inn and given $10 meal voucher (not much use when hotel restaurant closed and nothing open close to airport). Was rebooked next day on NW FWA-DTW-MKE. QUITE the experience LOL.
Some 30 years ago. Flying from Vancouver to Toronto. Plane couldn’t land because of fog and was diverted to London Ontario. The real problem was there were several people going to London (connecting flight at Toronto) but they couldn’t get off the plane because the airport didn’t have the right deboarding gear. The attendance actually opened the door so we can get some fresh air for 3 hours until the plane was able to go back to Toronto
I have probably been lucky having never had to divert when flying commercial!!! On 2 different medical evacuations (Royal Flying Doctor Service – God Bless) I’ve been diverted 3 times for a few hours probably 12 hours instead of 2ish. ZNE→JAD became ZNE→TEF →PHE→aircraft change→KTA→JAD.
We had earlier landed at BOM from AMS to connect to an Air India flight BOM to KTM (Kathmandu, Nepal) in October2018. Flew to KTM only to have to turn around over the city due to visual impedance. The airport is visual flight rules only. Landed back at an airport just inside India, along with other airlines waiting for KTM clearance which after four or five hours never came. Flew back to BOM to sleep on seats in the airport. 24 hours after initially leaving BOM we successfully landed at KTM.
Cyprus to Zagreb (ZAG) via Budapest by Malev back in 2012.
Circling over Budapest for 30 minutes due to airport problems, then continuing to Vienna for technical landing. Waiting on tarmac for 3 hours without possibility to leave the aircraft. Then take off back to Budapest, to find out our plane to Zagreb already departed. They provided flight again to Vienna, getting there, running across the terminal building to catch the plane for Zagreb (waiting for us) in the last moment.
Needless to say, our luggage was lost on the way, and was delivered 2 days after.
Malev ceased to exist only 1-2 years later.
damn
LHR TO JFK. ENFINE FAILURE. I GOT STUCK IN MIDDLE OF ATLANTIC OCEAN AT AN AIR BASE WITH A 3DAY DELAY BRIRISH AIRWAYS A380. HALF REFUND.
BOEING OR AIRBUS
ME AIRBUS
REPLY
AIRBUS BEST
Ascension Island to Port Stanley – aircraft recalled at Point of No Return. Total flight time twenty hours with tanker required to rendezvous on the way back to where we started from ! Single crew too…….
Nous avons fait un vol depuis Brussel (BRU) vers San Fransisco (SFO) avec une escale a Londres (LHR). Notre vol de brussel-londres a eu 2 heure de retard. Donc nous n avons pas pu peendre l avion a londres vers san fransico, la compagnie british airways nous a payé une nuit d hotel a londres pour prendre un vol le lendemain. La compagnie nous a remboursé notre vol
Arrived at the terminal at 4am in ANC to catch a flight to SEA. Walked into chaos as the terminal was packed with people and no lines were moving.
Turns out all flights were canceled indefinitely do to an ash cloud overhead from a volcano in Russia.
There was obviously nothing anybody could do and everyone were taking it in stride.
Didn’t get to the counter until 2pm to be rebooked (hopefully) the next day.
Airspace finally opened in the afternoon the next day and managed to catch a redeye to ORD and on to home in RIC.
Had a nice hotel stay and an extra day in ANC.
First and probably the last time I’ll be delayed by a volcano.
Interesting experience.