United Airlines (Chicago) flight UA 863 from San Francisco to Sydney did go as planned. That is an understatement for the 251 passengers on board the flight.

The aircraft, a Boeing 777-200 ER, after the long flight from San Francisco to Sydney was diverted to Canberra due to debris on the runway at Sydney. The runway at SYD was closed for only 35 minutes but two United aircraft were on reserve fuel and had to divert. The flight when it was arrived at Canberra was unable to process its passengers by Customs and Immigration because they were unavailable to process the passengers at the mainly domestic airport. The flight crew also was out of legal flying time. The passengers were stuck on the tarmac for 7 hours. Some passengers had been traveling for over 30 hours.

Read the full account from ABC News: CLICK HERE

Read the passenger accounts on #UA863: CLICK HERE

Top Twitter Photo by Catherine Devine: Passengers were feed on the tarmac.

United Airlines aircraft slide show (current livery):