Passengers awaiting a flight from St. Louis to Denver over the weekend could have driven to their destination in less time than it took for their Frontier Airlines flight to actually board.

Denver’s CBS4 reports that passengers on Frontier Flight 287 spent 18 hours sitting at the gate Sunday afternoon before their flight eventually took off down the runway (it takes about 12 hours to drive from St. Louis to Denver).

The flight, which was scheduled to land in Denver at 7 a.m. Sunday morning, finally landed at 2:30 a.m. Monday, after passengers endured delay after delay for mechanical and crew issues.

Passengers on the flight describe the ordeal as a nightmare, with nearly 70 people – including elderly passengers and families – sleeping in chairs and on the floor as they waited at the gate.

Passengers say they weren’t offered compensation or hotel vouchers for their inconvenience, because of a printer issue.

“So at this point people with families had been here 12 hours and were told, ‘You need to be here at midnight for this flight to possibly go out at midnight,’” a passenger recalls.

After nearly 12 hours of delays, the plane was finally ready to go. Only, by this time, there wasn’t a crew readily available to fly the plane and a new team had to be flown in.

“You thought hidden cameras were up and someone was pulling something over your eyes,” one passenger tells CBS4.

When the flight was finally ready to board, passengers tell CBS4 that tensions were so high police had to monitor the process.

Frontier Airlines Leaves Passengers Stranded For 18 Hours Without Compensation [CBS4]

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