A group of 13 strangers embarked on a 650-mile, 11-hour road trip after their flight was cancelled in Orlando.
The travellers were at Orlando International Airport on Sunday (4 December) when their Frontier Airlines flight to Knoxville, Tennessee was cancelled at the last minute.
One passenger, Alanah Story, took to TikTok to document the moment. “Our flight is cancelled. So me and a bunch of strangers and my family, we decide to rent a 15-passenger van and ride back to Tennessee.”
“So meet the gang,” she adds, introducing some of her fellow impromptu road trippers. Alanah was travelling with her mother and godmother, but the other 10 people who drove between states were complete strangers.
“I can’t make this up. Road trip!” she captioned her first video telling the story.
Another passenger on the van journey, Mikayla Puckering, told CNN: “When [the group] first told me I looked at them like they were crazy. I’m like, ‘You want to get into this big van with a bunch of random strangers?’”
Some passengers told reporters they simply wanted to get home; others had pressing work engagements the next day in Knoxville. Mikayla had a tour booked of a prospective college in Tennessee.
Mikayla’s parents, Laura and Carlos, said they were hesitant at first. But when the group approached them, they warmed up to the spontaneous idea.
“I said, ‘I’m down,’” said Carlos. “She was like, ‘If you’re down, I’m in.’ Then some other lady came in and said, ‘If you guys are in, I’m in.’
“We got a really good vibe, because these are regular, normal, wholesome people trying to get home and having things that they need to take care of,” he added.
They went to the Hertz rental desk in Orlando Airport, where a 15-seater van was available for hire. They left Orlando around 9.30pm, arriving in Knoxville around 8.30am.
“So we rented it. And the rest is kind of history,”said Carlo, who drove the majority of the journey with the help of “the world’s strongest cappucino” from Dunkin’ Donuts.
Fellow passenger Seth said he helped keep Carlos awake and alert for the journey by chatting to him about his job as a minister.
The group took bathroom breaks and numbered themselves so they could have a head count each time they got back into the van.
In a video posted by Alanah after the group’s arrival, Carlo confirms “We made our 10.30am appointment” for his daughter to tour the University of Tennessee.
Two of the passengers, Adolf and Johann, were from Mexico. Michelle Miller, also known as influencer @TheFarmBabe, was a keynote speaker at a big event in Knoxville, and made it on time.
“If I thought that this was crazy, I knew other people might think it’s crazy also,” Alanah told CNN. “And so I just figured, this is a very unique bunch of people, we’re all very different. So I don’t know, maybe other people would want to see it too, because things like this just don’t happen on the regular.”
“We all were so different. And I think a big part of why people like it so much is because you could literally see our differences in real time,” she adds.
Alanah’s initial video of the incident has already had 3.6 million views on Tiktok, with hundreds of thousands of people commenting on each update from the group.
Everyone who made the journey appears to have come away with a warm fuzzy feeling - and up to 12 new friends.
“We were like a big dysfunctional family,” says Michelle. “It was fun.”
“Everybody was so awesome. It almost went too perfect,” agreed Carlos.
“There was no traffic. Everyone got along, everyone pitched in. It was just seamless.
“It took collective effort. Everybody really had their own thing going on. But everybody cared about one another’s ventures and responsibilities.”
“I take away the fact that there are some really good people in this world,” said Carlos’ wife, Laura. “We were all different cultures, we were different backgrounds. It couldn’t have gotten more perfect. So I don’t have any regrets. No regrets whatsoever.”
“I feel like this situation for me specifically kind of restored my trust and humanity a little bit,” said Alanah. “There’s definitely hope for people; people, they can be good. And also, if you get the opportunity to go on a crazy adventure, you should take it, because you never know what’s gonna come out of it.”
