The unscheduled stop of a Delta Airlines flight in Whitehorse on Saturday night saw 199 passengers stuck at the airport terminal all night.

Staff from the Canadian Border Services Agency, Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport and Air North helped deal with the situation.

That involved everything from assisting with the landing and directing passengers off the plane into the airport, to delivering pizzas to those stranded at the airport.

Air North president Joe Sparling said this morning airports have protocols for unscheduled flights to land in cases of emergencies or as precautionary measures.

In this case, there was an issue with the oxygen system on Delta’s Boeing 757, which had been on its way to Anchorage from Minneapolis.

Saturday night happens to be the one night of the week when Air North doesn’t have a flight coming into or leaving Whitehorse.

While there were a few staff there when the call came in that the Delta flight would be landing, about a half dozen had to be called in, including ramp, counter and operations staff.

Given that the flight had not been scheduled to land in Canada, many passengers did not have a passport so couldn’t leave the airport to check in at hotels and motels.

“They were confined to the lounge,” Sparling noted.

That had Air North staff like Ed Peart putting in an order that saw 50 pizzas delivered to the American travellers.

That treat was followed by a “coffee and donut” run in the morning by Air North COO Rick Nielsen.

Since the travellers were stuck overnight at an airport with nothing to eat, Sparling said, it only made sense to get something for them.

At around 5:53 a.m. Sunday, a Delta flight from Seattle arrived to get the passengers to their destination. On board was a mechanic to work on the Boeing 757 with the mechanical problem.

Air North assisted with refuelling and de-icing the plane before it took off.