A lightning strike sent a military plane scrambling to land at Mitchell International Airport Wednesday afternoon, leaving one teen stranded in Michigan after flights were delayed.
The military plane was forced to land at about 2:40 p.m. The tires of the KC-135 plane blew as it came in for a hard landing.
As emergency crews worked to move the plane from the runway, travelers saw big delays.
“They keep bumping it back,” said Becky Gibson who was trying to get her family home to Orlando.
“I’m just going to be waiting around,” said Josephine Krueger who was trying to pick up her grandmother.
A couple from Fond Du Lac was worried about their granddaughter, Kyla Hegney, 17. Her parents put her on a straight-through flight to Milwaukee.
“She was supposed to be here at 3:30 p.m.,” said her grandmother Marilyn Furlong.
Instead, she ended up stranded in Flint, Michigan waiting for the delays to clear up at Mitchell.
Hegney said it was a nerve-wracking day.
“We were about 30 minutes from Milwaukee, like we were 30 minutes from landing, and I’m checking my phone and I see us going around Milwaukee,” said Hegney.
She was told they landed in Michigan instead of circling the airport. Her parents back in Arizona were worried how long she might be stuck all alone.
When she finally got to Milwaukee she made the call to them she was with her grandparents and safe.
“As soon as I called them they were obviously very happy. There was a sigh of relief on the phone,” said Hegney.
The reason Mitchell has to do a temporary airport shut down was also because its other main runway is currently under construction. That means there is only one working runway right now.
