Passengers who spent 13 hours on a plane Friday got off exactly where they started — at Pearson Airport.

As a fierce storm pummeled the GTA delaying and cancelling hundreds of flights, the 7 a.m. Sunwing flight, destined for Panama City, sat on the runway, returned to a gate, where no one was allowed to get off the plane, returned to the runway and finally back to the gate around 8 p.m.

“This has been a comedy of errors, but it’s not funny,” said passenger Sherry Tamilia. “No food, no water, except for two packages each, at four-hour intervals, of corn chips, and one half glass of water.”

Sunwing officials could not be reached by the Star for comment, but Sunwing spokesman Daryl McWilliams told CP24 that part of the problem was due to de-icing issues.

McWilliams said there was no earlier opportunity to bring the passengers into the terminal.

Regarding the lack of food and water, McWilliams said, “I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for that, but unfortunately, I don’t have it.”

“We’re really trying our very very best to accommodate our passengers here,” McWilliams said. “We’re not deliberately trying to make people uncomfortable.”

While Tamilia spoke to the Star, crew announced the plane would return to the terminal, and cheers arose.

“The idea now is we’re going back to a gate, but you have to understand, we’re a little cynical.” She said during the wait there were times passengers were unable to use the washroom for long periods of time, because the flight was anticipating take-off.

“It’s unbelievable crazy,” said Tamilia.

The flight was re-scheduled to depart later Friday evening.

Another flight, an Air Canada plane coming from Fort Myers, Fla., landed around 5 p.m., but five hours later, passengers waited on the Toronto tarmac to disembark.

“Story we’ve been given is everything from ‘an airplane is broken at the terminal, they don’t have any shuttle buses, their pullers are broken,’ and meantime, we’re watching all these other planes being pulled around,” said Toronto passenger Angelo Cusati.

“There are a lot of babies on board, and there are a few people who are having anxiety attacks.”

An Air Canada spokesperson was not available for comment.

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De-icing woes have significantly reduced the number of planes that can be processed each hour. Add to that any delay in takeoff can lead to planes requiring more de-icing if there is any snow or ice buildup on wings. If planes are waiting too long, they sometimes need to refuel, resulting in longer delays.

A Greater Toronto Airports Authority spokesperson blamed the de-icing problems on a computer glitch.