Passengers flying from O'Hare to London stranded in Canada

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Some United Airlines passengers who were stranded in Canada finally have arrived in London Sunday.

They took off from Chicago on Friday night, but were forced to make an emergency landing in Goose Bay, Canada and would end up staying there for more than 20 hours.

It was a nightmare flight for passengers on board United flight No. 958. The plane left Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Friday night, headed for London's Heathrow Airport.

Three hours into the flight the plane had a mechanical issue and then suddenly landed in Goose Bay, Canada. All 176 passengers would spend 20 hours in military barracks.

"It really wasn't an organized arrangement," said passenger Lois Harper. "We signed in, we were given a room key and whatever we had in the room is what we had."

Harper was heading home to London. She says the conditions were less than ideal.

"In my room there were no blankets, a sheet and a pillow and the heating wasn't on," she said. It was quite cold."

Indiana native George Hudiczius had brought his children with him and said he didn't even know why they were deplaning.

"They didn't say what was wrong with the plane or why, just that we were going to have to get off," he said. "The temperature was 39 degrees, so it was cold. I can tell you, I didn't carry coats and pants so I was in my shorts and I have light jacket. All of our luggage had to be checked stayed on the plane somewhere."

Passengers took to Twitter, venting over what they said was United's lack of communication and frustration. The crew stayed in a hotel.

Passengers eventually made it out of Canada, flying to Newark for a connection to their long-awaited destination.

United Airlines issued a statement saying the plane had a maintenance issue and that "we apologize to our customers and will be refunding their tickets."

In response to the criticism that 11 crew members got to sleep in a hotel, United said there was not enough space to accommodate all of its passengers away from the barracks.