United Airlines: Couple who raised alarm over plane fuel leak forced to spend night in airport lounge

The newlywed couple who reported a fuel leak from the wing of a United Airlines plane last week claim they were abandoned at the airport overnight.

Mike and Rachel Brumfield were due to fly from Newark Liberty International Airport to Venice on 13 June, but the pair averted potential disaster by flagging up the fact that fuel was pouring from a tank in the port wing.

United Airlines flight 170 had already left the gate and was taxiing on the runway when the couple spotted the fuel leak.

Mrs Brumfield told the New York Post that her husband ran to alert flight attendants, but was yelled at to sit down. When cabin crew looked for themselves, they told the pilots, who called the fire service.

The flight was cancelled, and passengers and their baggage were offloaded.

The couple say they were offered champagne and invited to the flight deck, where they showed the footage to the pilots. “They just looked at the video and they all kind of looked at each other, like, ‘We’ve never seen anything like this’,” she said.

However, the Brumfields were then left to spend the night on the floor at Newark airport. The couple claim that United only gave them a food voucher but did not find them a hotel room. This, despite United’s statement at the time that: “Our team at Newark supplied meal vouchers and worked to provide customers with overnight hotel accommodation. They also re-accommodated customers on alternative flights.”

The Brumfields also said that United had lost their luggage.

Passengers who were booked on the cancelled inbound flight from Venice to New York were entitled to €600 in compensation, but those on the flight with the fuel leak had no statutory right to recompense.

This story comes after a difficult few months for United – the airline hit headlines in April after a passenger, David Dao, was dragged from an overbooked flight waiting to depart from Chicago airport. The incident gained the world’s attention after a video went viral on social media.

After the fiasco, Oscar Munoz, the airline’s chief executive, said: “Every customer deserves to be treated with the highest levels of service and the deepest sense of dignity and respect.”