United Express flight gets stuck in snow for 2 hours

A United Express flight got stuck in the snow after flying into Kansas' biggest airport during the winter storm that walloped the state on Thursday. Passengers were stuck on board for more than two hours while airport crews worked to free the plane from the snow.

The Bombardier CRJ-700 regional jet – operated by United Airlines regional partner SkyWest – was carrying 66 passengers when it arrived in Wichita around 4:15 p.m. local time. Airport officials say the cockpit crew took a wrong turn onto an unplowed taxiway and became stuck in the snow, K-USA TV of Denver reports.

"I was sitting next to guy and we weren't really paying attention to what was going on and then we began taxiing and we hear (a crunching sound) and he turns to me a says 'that didn't sound good,' " passenger Darin Drown says to Wichita's KAKE TV.

No one was hurt, but it took nearly two hours to get passengers and crew off the snowbound plane.

Flight 5518 passenger Ken Crockett tells Wichita NBC affiliate KSN the cabin crew handled the situation well, passing out cookies to passengers.

"Everybody was joking and having a good time," Crokett says to KSN. "I don't think anybody really got upset about it."

"It got a little long, but – for the most part – everyone stayed in good spirits," Emila Bond, another passenger on the flight, adds to KSN.

KSN reports that "workers tried to clear a path so buses could drive out to the plane and bring passengers in. However it was later decided it was too slick to bring in buses and airport officials decided to wait for a tow back to the terminal."

"A lot of people were out there with shovels digging it out," Valerie Wise of the Wichita Airport Authority tells The Wichita Eagle.

KWCH TV of Wichita notes that the "flight was one of just a few flights that landed at Mid-Continent Thursday. Several flights had been canceled due to the record snowfall."