A medical emergency and a mechanical problem left passengers on a United Airlines flight stuck for about 16 hours on the frigid tarmac of a Canadian airport in the plane's barely heated interior. United Flight 179 had taken off late Saturday from Newark, New Jersey en route to Hong Kong with some 250 passengers on board. When a passenger suffered a medical emergency, the plane made an emergency landing in Goose Bay airport in Newfoundland and Labrador province. But after paramedics evacuated the passenger, the plane was unable to take off - reportedly because bitterly cold temperatures had caused a door to freeze. With no customs officers on duty overnight, passengers were forced to stay on board, many shivering under the thin blankets handed out by flight attendants. <br/>
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Raising concerns over delayed salary payments, a group of Air India pilots has said financial stress could impact flight safety. The Indian Pilots' Guild, which represents pilots of wide-body planes of Air India, has also told aviation regulator DGCA that the management has continuously used the guise of financial losses to illegally change their service conditions and withhold payment of arrears as well as overtime. "We are already engaged in multiple litigations for our basic rights and service conditions. If even our salaries are now withheld and reduced at the whims and fancies of airline management, it is not humanly possible to keep all this stress away from the cockpit," the guild has said. The guild has around 700 members. <br/>