Thousands Stranded at Iceland’s Airport — Including Damian Lewis

• Thousands have been stranded at Iceland’s Keflavík International Airport on account of unhealthy climate.
• Travelers describe ‘otherworldly’ circumstances, lack of meals and water, and no solution to attain accommodations.
• Caroline Rose, who lastly returned to DC, additionally noticed actor Damian Lewis among the many crowd.

Thousands of individuals have been stranded at Iceland’s Keflavík International Airport on account of unhealthy climate — and so they’ve taken to social media to commiserate, sharing pictures of “otherworldly” airport circumstances through the December vacation journey rush.

Caroline Rose, a 26-year-old researcher at New Lines Institute, a Washington-based assume tank, shared a number of pictures to Twitter, together with a selfie with 51-year-old “Billions” actor Damian Lewis.

Over Twitter DM, Rose described the expertise as an “utter nightmare” to Insider and stated she requested Lewis, who gave the impression to be ready together with his youngsters, for a photograph — “I figured I’d ask for a selfie to have some sort of positive memory of the night,” Rose defined. “He was incredibly kind!” Lewis’s representatives didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s request for remark.

Rose, who’d flown from Heathrow to Keflavík on Saturday, described her flight getting delayed “every several minutes or so, citing extreme weather on the ground,” however, after calling Icelandair to make “alternative arrangements,” she informed Insider she was instructed to remain on the flight, which ultimately left London and landed in Keflavik.

Rose described fellow vacationers arriving in Keflavík late Saturday night time to seek out “otherworldly” circumstances, saying “all of the restaurants shut down and vending machines pretty much looted.”

“Many of us were starving and had to scrounge for any food we could find after the airline only gave us cereal bars to munch on while waiting on the tarmac,” Rose stated, alluding to a two-hour delay she skilled ready on the tarmac to de-board.

As the variety of stranded vacationers elevated, the out there lodge lodging quickly decreased.

One TikToker, who stated in a December 21 TikTok that he’d landed in Iceland for an hour-long layover and since been stranded for 4 days, described the “swarming” of passengers to seek out accommodations at the identical time. According to NBC News, many accommodations close by have been already absolutely booked over the weekend.

While Airlines resembling Icelandair and easyJet did supply passengers lodge lodging and reimbursements, even these fortunate sufficient to e book lodge stays weren’t essentially in a position to attain the beds they’d paid to sleep in. Rose, who stated she booked a lodge room whereas nonetheless on the tarmac, was one such traveler.

“There were no taxis or buses that could take us to nearby hotels or into Reykjavik,” she defined, “so I had to eat the cost of my hotel booking for the night (they would not refund) and sleep on the airport floor along with hundreds of others.”

Travelers attempting to choose up guests from the airport additionally shared failed makes an attempt on the “perilous drive” to retrieve guests from the airport on December 19, together with a girl whose mom was ultimately escorted by a “mountain rescue guy.”

Rose described vacationers sleeping on the check-in baggage belt and on prime of bags, in addition to these organising “campsite-like circles” with strangers on the ground to share no matter snacks that they had on them.

“It was heartbreaking to see parents try and put little children to sleep,” Rose stated. “The airport was very cold.”

At round midnight, when rebookings began to hit passengers’ accounts, Rose described frustratingly convoluted or unimaginable routes — she recalled one traveler being positioned on a Thursday flight out (it was, by then, Sunday morning) and one other who would want to return to London and swap airports throughout an hour-long layover.

“I had to fly to Amsterdam, where I had a transfer in under 15 minutes to my flight back home to DC,” Rose, who’s now lastly again in Washington, stated. “I made it by the skin of my teeth.” Unfortunately, Icleandair did lose her checked bag, she stated.

A vital 30-mile freeway that connects Keflavík to Reykjavík was cleared of snow as of Tuesday, and flights out of the airport have resumed, albeit with delays, according to a statement from Icelandair.

“Our team have worked tirelessly throughout the night to rebook passengers on new flights, and they will continue to do this today,” Icelandair said in an update Wednesday morning. “It is our absolute priority to get passengers to where they need to be before Christmas.”

But passengers stay annoyed by the expertise and by the way in which airways dealt with the chaos.

Ryan Stevens, one other London traveler, is down 1,500 euros after paying for 3 nights in a lodge and two extra booked flights, per reporting by Insider’s Rebecca Cohen, with no details about being reimbursed.

“I’m lucky, I didn’t go to the airport. I’m not stuck there. But I don’t know what to do,” Stevens previously told Insider. “Nobody can blame airlines for cancellations, but the aftercare after such an event needs to be handled better. I’m stuck. No idea what the next move is. No support whatsoever.”

Rose felt equally.

“I have a hard time understanding why Icelandair did (and continued to) irresponsibly decide to send passengers to Keflavík when it knew all too well that weather conditions were so dangerous and would prevent people from accessing a warm place to sleep, food, and water,” she stated.

Icleandair didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s request for remark.

Email tips about all issues web to mleighton@insider.com.