'Like we were in a Hallmark movie': 4 strangers drive to Winnipeg together after their flight was cancelled due to fog

On Friday morning, a plane circled above Winnipeg, Man., trying to find a pathway to the ground through intense fog. Finally, the captain had to make the announcement: it was impossible to land.

As the plane wheeled around to head back to the airport in Minneapolis, many passengers started to wonder how they were going to make it home for Christmas.

For four strangers on the plane, the answer would come in the form of one rental car and a leap of faith.

“It felt a little bit like we were in a Hallmark movie,” Alison Hall told CTV News Channel.

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Hall, who is a correspondent and producer for CBS's Inside Edition, was on her second flight of the day when the plane turned around instead of landing in Winnipeg. She had taken off from her home in New York, flown to Minneapolis, and then caught her connecting flight to fly home to family in Winnipeg, where she is originally from.

“I was very excited to get home for the holidays for a white Christmas,” she told CTV News Channel. “I have just a few days with my family over the Christmas holidays.”

When the plane returned to Minneapolis, passengers were told to stay near the gate, and that the plane would take off again as soon as the fog cleared.

“Unfortunately, the fog did not clear,” she said. “So for several hours, we were waiting and waiting and waiting. And after five hours of waiting, the flight was canceled. And of course because of the busy holiday season, there were no more flights out to Winnipeg that day.”

Trying to find a solution that wouldn’t result in her flying in late on Christmas Eve, Hall asked the gate agent about the possibility of getting a rental car and just driving.

“I happened to be standing next to two individuals who did not know each other,” she said. “They overheard me say this to the gate agent, they looked at me and said, ‘Can I come?’

“And I thought, ‘okay, why not? Let’s do this!’”

Before they had even exchanged names, the three of them agreed to pitch in to cover the cost of getting a rental car and taking it all the way to Winnipeg.

“As we were walking away, we ran into another woman who said ‘Oh no, I have to get to Winnipeg, my grandson is performing in the Nutcracker tomorrow, I'm gonna miss it!’ So of course we said ‘Get on in, we have a car!’”

She said the gate agent and the employee who set them up with a rental car were “pretty shocked” that the four of them didn’t know each other at all.

But they were on a holiday mission, so they loaded the car up and set off on the nine-hour drive to Winnipeg.

“We had the best time,” Hall said. “I couldn't have gotten luckier, with being in a car with strangers, with kinder, more wonderful people.”

They jammed to Christmas carols—“Thankfully, everyone was quite respectful of the driver’s choices, which was myself,” Hall said—and shared stories with each other as they drove north.

Two of the four strangers are American. They lived in various places across North America, but were all aiming to reunite with family in Winnipeg for the holidays.

For insurance purposes, Hall was the sole driver.

“I was at the wheel the whole time, but I had the support of three of the most wonderful strangers and new friends,” she said.

“It was really, really special.”

PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES

Hall and the other passengers on that Friday flight are far from the only people who have had their holiday plans upended by bad weather over the past few days.

While Christmas Day has been warmer than usual across much of Canada, with above-zero temperatures stretching from Ontario to the Maritimes, a wide chunk of Ontario was covered with fog on Monday, making driving perilous in some regions.

Mild temperatures have also delayed the start of the ice fishing season in a town near Quebec City. Tourists who gathered in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Perade for the opening of ice fishing on Dec. 26 are going to have to wait longer—the ice just isn’t thick enough.

Meanwhile, the West Coast has been dealing with heavy rain and winds. The ferries that transport passengers to and from Prince Rupert, B.C., were cancelled on Sunday, Christmas Eve, due to a mechanical issue and forecasted “hurricane-force winds.” Sailings aren’t expected to resume until Thursday.

Despite their weather woes, Hall and her three fellow passengers made it to Winnipeg in time for Christmas.

At the end of their trip, they exchanged phone numbers and photos. Mary, the woman who was rushing to get to her grandson’s play, was able to see the Nutcracker, Hall said.

“We all shared that it was worth the drive and that we feel so lucky to have met each other,” she said.

She admitted it “was a little risky,” adding that she let her family know the plan before they headed out.

But she’s glad they all took the plunge.

“I want people to know that there are really good people in the world more often than not,” she said. “And especially, just in the spirit of Christmas, to keep an open mind and be kind to others, and just know that things can work out sometimes.” 

With files from the Canadian Press