Passengers on a plane had high expectations of being able to “travel back in time” by taking off in 2024 and landing in 2023 to celebrate the New Year twice.
United Airlines offered one Flight the only one with which it promised its passengers a journey into the past.
“You only live once, but you can celebrate New Year’s Eve twice!” wrote the airline on December 28th on its social networks.
But the dreams of dozens passengers were frustrated in an unexpected way because flight UA200 had an unexpected delay.
The aircraft was scheduled to depart Guam International Airport at 7:35 a.m. on January 1, 2024; an island in the Pacific that belongs to the Mariana Islands archipelago.
The flight program called for the aircraft to land in Honolulu, Hawaii at 6:50 p.m. on December 31, 2023; just in time to celebrate the new year.
You only live once, but you can celebrate New Year's Eve twice! 🎉🎉
UA200 departs Guam on January 1, 2024 at 7:35 a.m. and arrives in Honolulu on December 31, 2023 at 6:50 p.m. pic.twitter.com/T3QY1ED9Bl
— United Airlines (@united) December 28, 2023
In this way, the Boeing 777 aircraft would travel through multiple time zones in “time” to bring its passengers to the final year.
However, the flight was delayed for more than six hours and finally landed at 12:34 a.m. on January 1; so that the passengers could not celebrate the New Year again as they had expected.
A frustrated dream for passengers
United Airlines flight attendants tried to compensate passengers and handed out champagne mid-flight to count down the New Year.
So these passengers greeted 2024 from the air and some only managed to see the celebratory fireworks display before landing in Honolulu.
The rejection reports were immediate and passengers expressed their dissatisfaction on social networks.
“I booked this flight specifically so I could do this… I received a delay notice and we are not scheduled to arrive until January 1st,” one user said.
United Airlines apologized for the delay and may offer compensation for the incident.
However, passengers of other, more punctual airlines managed to comply with this requirement, for example on some flights that departed from Asian countries to the USA.
How can you travel through time?
This isn't the first time a company has offered time travel flights during the New Year celebrations.
However, this is not science fiction, but rather the rotational movement that the Earth performs for around 24 hours.
The world is divided into 24 time zones, the measurement of which begins at the Greenwich meridian and, based on this rotation process, defines the time available to each country.
This means that every country has a time difference and is ahead or behind a point on Earth.
This actually explains why the islands and countries of the Pacific and Oceania are the first to celebrate the arrival of the New Year or are the first to start a day throughout the year.
In order to make this journey in time, the planes have to fly from west to east against the Earth's rotation in order to gain a few hours compared to the time when they took off.
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