Thinking about Meadowhall, what's the longest time you've been stranded somewhere?

[chomalungma]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50341846

Overnight in a shopping centre?

I spent 3 days in Pittsburgh airport many years ago because of snow. Apparently is was the North American Blizzard of 2003. The only food we could get was from the restaurants. Couldn't leave the airport at all and the hotels were all full near us. The person I was with was not my cup of tea either.

But I am sure other people can easily beat that.

Once was stuck in Ulan Bator airport for 6 hours while the plane was being repaired. We all sat in the bar and got smashed with the customs official, who was just waiting for us to fly out so he could go home.

A few of them were flight delays:

An unscheduled night in New York when our flight was delayed due to a technical problem. It meant that we missed our connection through to Boston. BA accepted it was their responsibility and paid for our hotel.

An extra 24 hours in Hong Kong when the radar failed on our plane on a flight from Bali. We missed our connecting flight back to the UK, but again, the airline (Cathay Pacific) accepted responsibility, paid for a hotel and provided meal vouchers for the next day and flew us back to Manchester the following evening.

Earlier this year we had an extra 17 hours in Madeira when a bee got stuck in the air speed indicator pipe as the plane was leaving Manchester. When the flight eventually landed in Funchal the captain came into the boarding gate area, and announced that he was out of flying hours for that day. The airline (Tui) bussed everyone to hotels, paid for our overnight stay, then bussed us back for our flight the next morning.

48 hours in an Atlanta hotel, when my very delayed flight to JFK, after spending ten hours at Heathrow and two hours in a holding pattern over NY hoping for the snow to calm, was diverted. Spent the time getting drunk in the bar with other strandees, and met one of my closest friends.

Last time Meadowhall flooded in 2007, my brother in law, a fireman went to work and returned 48 hours later, had a couple of hours sleep and was called out again. Ulley dam was about to burst, which would have taken out the M1 junction before Meadowhall and there's a huge electric substation at the same place. We watched him on sky news updating the press more than we saw him.

After the wildfire here in 2016 that saw 88,000 people evacuated. It was a month before we could return home. We had time to pack a few bags before we left but many just had what they were wearing.

Gosh - I completely forgot about this all day. Never had MNHQ bump a thread up!!

Being stuck on a ferry doesn't sound like fun.

Fucking EasyJet dumped and stranded a plane load of passengers including me at Lyons airport on a Stansted-Geneva flight when it couldn't get its landing spot at Geneva, on a Sunday afternoon,. We were promised there would be coaches laid on to take us onwards.
Nope, never happened. Because it was impossible to arrange half a dozen coaches at very short notice on a Sunday afternoon in France.
It was March, ski season, and EJ was aware of possible problems due to heavy air traffic at Geneva, possible delays mentioned on their website. But the plane still took off, then they decided to abort the flight, stranded the passengers at Lyons then took off again.
It was a horrible feeling, I felt helpless and truly abandoned. There wasn't even an Easyjet agent there, despite what the flight crew promised. The airport was all but closed anyway, no more flights were due in. Did I mention it was Sunday afternoon in France.?
Eventually, after milling around for hours trying to find someone responsible and get something done, the passengers banded together and arranged taxis to take us in groups to Geneva, arriving after 9.30 pm after a horrendous motorway journey in driving rain with a driver who was on his phone the whole time. Cost us 90 Euros each. We were too scared to say anything in case he turfed us out on the side of the motorway.
I will never fly EasyJet again.

36 hours Kos airport 1989. 12 hours M25 last year

I got stranded in Senegal for 48 hours when plane got stuck due to hitting a bird. It was actually quite enjoyable, as I got a hotel and all meals provided by the airline so bit like an all inclusive holiday.

5 hours on the North Yorkshire moors in my car because the road was blocked with snow and the snow plough couldn’ get through because of the abandoned cars.

Stuck at Knebworth for 5 hours after a Robbie Williams concert. Selfish tossers had abandoned their cars on the M1. It was hell on earth getting out.

3 days in Egypt in 2010 when the Icelandic volcano erupted. I had to move hotels and Thomas Cook put us up in the Hilton, all inclusive for 3 days at the end of our holiday until flights were allowed back to the UK.

2 days on a channel.ferry 40 odd years ago when the French fishermen went on strike and blockaded the ports.
We were on a day crossing so no bedroom, the food ran out and all the toilets backed up. It was grim.

24 hours stranded alone in Milan after a rail connection failed. I didn’t have much money and spent the night in a dive of a hotel.

12 hour queue in a quagmire of a muddy field waiting for a tow from the tractor leaving Glastonbury with an almighty hangover.

I got stranded in Rome due to fog grounding flights. Which lifted and the weather was beautiful for the rest of the day. Some people I knew who were in the same flight arranged for us to stay at the Vila Palatzolla, abd we walked round Lake Albano to Castel Gandolfo. Where the Popes summer palace is. It was wonderful, and I'd never have gone there otherwise

Overnight when I left work as snow started falling in rural Hampshire and I had no idea how quickly an A-road can ice / snow up. Queues of traffic waiting to get up a hill, aided by tractors if a fancy rear-wheel drive, while my little 1.2 VW polo chugged up in 1st gear. Had to wee outside my car while waiting as we were there for hours . Got up the hill to the village pub where I ordered a whisky and was told I would never make it to my hometown, but at the church some people were organising beds... I remember a mix of feeling proud that I was managing on my own, and feeling homesick that my baby daughter was home with DH and I couldn’t get there! Ended up staying overnight with a random couple, sleeping in my clothes, but was so grateful. Next morning I got home easily, and took baby sledging!!!

48 hours in Vienna with DH, a 6 week old baby and hand luggage only (no pram, cot etc). They put us in a hotel but we had to spend most of the time in the airport on the off chance the fog cleared suddenly and we could fly. It was fun.

44 hour coach trip in Brazil. We reached a part where the road had been washed away. After a long time the coach driver agreed with a coach stuck at the other end of the mudslide that they would swap passengers. We waded half a mile through calf deep red brown mud, carrying our luggage, and got on the new coach for 16 more hours of staring our the window in a dazed glaze of exhaustion.

@emmagrundyforpm Wow I'd forgotten about that. I think the Captain of our ferry (perhaps with others) eventually got fed up and rammed the cable that stretched across the harbour mouth and broke it so we were free. It was about 2am and there was lots of jingoistic cheering from passengers.

Earlier this year we had an extra 17 hours in Madeira when a bee got stuck in the air speed indicator pipe as the plane was leaving Manchester. When the flight eventually landed in Funchal the captain came into the boarding gate area, and announced that he was out of flying hours for that day. The airline (Tui) bussed everyone to hotels, paid for our overnight stay, then bussed us back for our flight the next morning.

And a nice payout from eu 261?

9 hours in Alicante airport. Due to snow in the UK. Never have I been so bored. I know people think its tacky when people give applause on planes but we just couldn't help ourselves. We clapped when we were told it had landed, clapped on take off and again upon landing in Bristol. It was mass hysteria.

Five days in southern Germany waiting for a broken car to be repaired.

14 hours in Faro Airport in March 2018 because of snow in the UK and no or incorrect communication from Easyjet throughout the delay, then a further delay of 4 hours on landing as nowhere to park, no-one to let us off the aircraft and baggage delays. Hadn't slept in over 24 hours on finally arriving home, completely ruined an otherwise good holiday. The flight should have been cancelled imo but EZY probably didn't want to pay for accommodation.

Similar experience flying back from Cape Verde this year because of aircraft issues. Flight delayed by 3 hours, then 1 hour on the tarmac with no air con, flight then diverted via Tenerife for refuelling which was another 4 hour delay including sitting on the tarmac, resulting again in an exhausting end to an otherwise good holiday, thanks to TUI and its worn out, rickety old 757s used on this route until the new 737 max arrived. Would've been better to cancel the flight either at CV or Tenerife but again they probably didn't want to pay for accommodation.

Has put us off flying abroad on holidays for a while.

I've been stuck in a lift.
Stuck in a car park (more than once, shamefully).
Snowed into a basement flat when I had broken my foot, couldn't get up the slippy steps.
Locked myself into a flat.
Stuck in the house because I couldn't find the keys to lock the door after me.
Stuck in a car park because I locked myself out of the vehicle but my baby was inside.
Stuck in a kids cosy coupe toy car.

14 hours in a literally flea ridden 'hotel' in Wincanton, after our car suddenly broke down. I was very pregnant at the time and very distressed by the next morning when our friend came on a mercy mission from London to get us.