Flight 135 was scheduled to fly from to Detroit, Michigan last weekend, but mechanical issues stranded passengers at a remote Canadian Forces Barracks for over 21 hours while the airline attempted to send relief planes and crews to evacuate the passengers before a record-setting blizzard would have kept them there even longer.

The Delta airliner experienced a mechanical problem while and needed to make an emergency landing, . Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay in Labrador was the closest runway long enough to accommodate the large passenger aircraft.

CFB Goose Bay was built in 1941 during World War II and served as a base for during the Cold War. The town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay just outside the airport only has a population of 8,000. It doesn’t help that the town’s average temperature in December is 11 degrees. Detroit might be a cold city, but the flight’s passengers weren’t prepared for such frigid temperatures.

dispatched a rescue flight to get the passengers out of Labrador and to Detroit. The simple solution created another dilemma: There was now a plane ready to take everyone to Michigan, but no staff. The crew that flew the plane to Goose Bay ran out of duty time, and the airport had to suspend operations for the night. The stranded passengers were forced to spend Sunday night in the airbase’s barracks.

The Atlanta-based airline was for Monday because they were in a race against time. A massive blizzard was headed straight across Labrador, directly at the airport. , Happy Valley-Goose Bay was buried in over two feet of snow by Tuesday. The snowfall broke a record set in November 1944.

Delta Air Lines apologized to its passengers for the inconvenience. Admittedly, the carrier did everything in its power to avoid customers potentially spending days trapped in a massive blizzard.