By Jeff Goldman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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NEWARK — The pilot of a United Airlines flight bound for Newark Tuesday night freaked out passengers before takeoff when he warned the plane would be flying through "horrific storms including tornadoes," according to people on board.

The warning, broadcast over the plane's speakers, so unnerved the passengers that a flight attendant took to the microphone in an attempt to calm fears on the flight, which had already been delayed two hours, passenger Pamela Kent said.

"He seemed angry," said Kent, a Princeton resident, who was traveling with her daughter Jessica. "He said 'we're going to be flying through horrific storms including tornadoes.'"

At least one other passenger took to Twitter to describe the concerns.

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We have just been told that were heading straight for tornadoes and will likely be in the air an extra hour — Elizabeth Svokos (@esvokos) August 23, 2017

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The pilot also instructed passengers aboard the overbooked flight to "get to know your neighbors" and that the trip to New Jersey would be "very turbulent," according to Kent, who was still in Chicago on Wednesday morning.

He then walked into the cockpit and shut the door, said Kent.

United Airlines said it was looking into the incident.

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"We would never put our crew or our passengers in a situation where it was unsafe to fly," United Airlines spokeswoman Natalie Noonan said. "The safety of the passengers and the crew is always our No. 1 priority."

There were tornado warnings in Warren County and in parts of Pennsylvania on Tuesday night as heavy rain pounded the Mid-Atlantic region.

Kent said the flight attendants tried to assure uneasy passengers that the pilot didn't meant it was unsafe to fly and that he was just letting people know there would be additional delays.

Eventually, the plane pushed away from the gate. As it was preparing to taxi to the runway, the pilot got back on the intercom, this time informing passengers the plane had a maintenance issue and had to return to the gate, Kent said.

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@united is your plan for flight 1997 seriously to make us board and sit on the runway for an hour after a 2-hour delay? Seriously? — Alexandra Svokos (@asvokos) August 23, 2017

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By that time, already frustrated passengers who apparently had enough told flight attendants they wanted to get off the plane. As it turned out, the pilot and his crew were also "timed out" at that point — meaning that had already worked their allotment of hours and that a new crew would have to take over for them.

Kent and her daughter said they had made up their mind to get off the flight prior to it being de-planed at 9 p.m..

They were among a group of at least 50 passengers who chose to make alternate plans.

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"It was a general feeling of being rattled," she said. "You want a pilot to have confidence. There was not that feeling."

When the 5:54 p.m. flight finally took off at 1:14 a.m. Wednesday, (after later deplaning a second time, the Kents were not on board. A Boeing 737 eventually landed in Newark at 3:58 a.m. — more than six-and-half after it was originally scheduled to touch down at 9:20 p.m.

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More United Airlines coverage

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Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.