A United Airlines flight from Edinburgh, Scotland to Chicago got diverted into a Wisconsin airport during a severe storm outbreak on July 27, 2026 — and passengers ended up stuck there for roughly nine hours before the plane finally reached Chicago that night. The story is receiving renewed attention after ABC News’s I-Team published Heather Fields’s account on August 26, 2026, about a month after the flight; nothing new is unfolding. The flight landed safely, everyone eventually reached their destination, and no injuries were reported.
Key facts
- Flight: United UA119, a Boeing 757-200 (N14120), on its daily Edinburgh-to-Chicago O’Hare route
- Diverted to Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay, Wisconsin, landing around 2 p.m. local time on July 27, 2026
- Cause: a severe storm outbreak / derecho; the National Weather Service confirmed seven tornadoes, with a peak gust of 104 mph near Monee, Illinois
- Regional impact: nearly 960 flight cancellations at O’Hare and power outages for about 300,000 ComEd customers
- Passengers were stuck in Green Bay about nine hours total — four hours on the grounded plane, then roughly five more on the tarmac
- Why the tarmac wait: Green Bay’s CBP office only staffs weekdays 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m., and the crew’s legal duty time ran out before a new crew could arrive
- Outcome: the flight reached Chicago O’Hare safely that night; no injuries were reported
What happened and why
United Flight UA119, a Boeing 757-200 (registration N14120) on its daily run from Edinburgh to Chicago O’Hare, was diverted to Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay, Wisconsin, landing there around 2 p.m. local time. The cause was a violent storm system moving through the Chicago area that day. The National Weather Service’s Chicago office confirmed seven tornadoes from the outbreak, with a peak wind gust of 104 mph recorded near Monee, Illinois, and AccuWeather described the system as a derecho — a fast-moving band of destructive straight-line winds. The storms forced nearly 960 flight cancellations at O’Hare, according to the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration)’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center, and knocked out power to roughly 300,000 ComEd customers across the region.
Four hours on the plane, then a legal wall
Once on the ground in Green Bay, passengers stayed on board the aircraft for about four hours. Conditions deteriorated: bathrooms filled up, toilet paper ran out, and the plane’s food supply was exhausted, though water remained available. When the crew finally tried to taxi out and continue on to Chicago, they ran into a different problem — federal aviation rules cap how many consecutive hours a flight crew can legally work (known as a duty-time limit, under 14 CFR Part 117), and the four hours already spent waiting on the ground had used up nearly all of the crew’s legal duty time — the clock ran out just as the plane began taxiing toward the runway. The plane had to turn back, and United needed to send a fresh crew from Chicago before the flight could leave.
Why passengers waited outside instead of in a terminal
Because the flight had originated overseas, arriving passengers legally needed to clear U.S. Customs and Border Protection before they could enter the terminal. But Green Bay’s CBP office only staffs officers on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and by the time the crew timed out that evening, no officers were on duty to process an international arrival. Rather than keep everyone on the grounded plane, CBP allowed passengers to deplane into a controlled area on the tarmac, where they waited roughly five more hours for the replacement crew to arrive. United later told ABC News it provided food and beverages during that wait. Fields, though, said United’s communication during the delay was poor.
A new crew eventually took over and flew the plane on to Chicago that same night, arriving safely at O’Hare. All told, passengers spent about nine hours in Green Bay between the ground hold and the tarmac wait.
One passenger’s 20-hour trip
Heather Fields, a passenger who was connecting onward to Denver, told ABC News her total journey — including the missed connection that followed — ran about 20 hours behind schedule before she finally reached Denver.
How United responded
In a statement to ABC News, United apologized to Fields, issued her an electronic travel certificate, and refunded some fees as what it called a gesture of goodwill. The airline initially offered $200 in flight credit; after Fields pushed back, United raised that offer to $500. United’s account, as relayed to ABC News, also confirmed the CBP tarmac arrangement and the food and drinks provided while the replacement crew was en route. It isn’t clear from the available reporting whether other passengers on the same flight received similar compensation, or whether the offer was specific to Fields’s complaint.
Airlines generally aren’t required under federal rules to cover hotel or meal costs for delays caused by weather, since that’s considered outside their control — which is part of why United’s response here was framed as a discretionary gesture rather than an obligation.
Why this is back in the news
Nothing about the flight itself is ongoing; the diversion concluded on July 27, 2026. ABC News’s I-Team published Fields’s account on August 26, 2026, about a month later; current coverage is retrospective, not a report of a new disruption.