A FAMILY has been forced to sleep outside after a United Airlines flight cancellation and airline shutdown left them with nowhere else to turn.

On February 16, a family vacation turned into a nightmare for Timmie John after she arrived at Hawaii’s Kona International Airport with her grandmother and children and ended up stranded.

The family was set to take a red-eye flight that had been delayed, so they collectively decided to wait.

However, around 11 p.m., United Airlines staff informed them that their flight was canceled and asked everyone to leave the airport.

At the time, Kona International Airport was doing an ongoing repair project on the runway, meaning they shut down for the night and forced passengers out of the airport.

John attempted to retrieve a hotel voucher from the airline staff, but there were no rooms available within 50 miles of the airport.

“I asked the United agent where are we supposed to go and sleep if the airport was closing?” John told SFGATE.

“She said ‘Sometimes I see people sleeping over there’ and pointed to benches on the grass outside. I have four kids and my grandmother was there. She just didn’t care. We were just outside on the grass.”

John and her family ended up spending the night on the hillside alongside cockroaches and ongoing construction.

While there, she revealed she saw dozens of other people, including the elderly and children, lying in the area and trying to make the most of the situation.

“We were all just trying to survive the night,” John explained.

“I was smashing cockroaches. There were construction trucks going by all night and then the sprinklers came on while everyone was resting. I was so shocked, there was no offering of blankets or food. And no way to get out.”

 Shelly Kunishige, a spokesperson for the Hawaii Department of Transportation, confirmed that the runway project hit multiple delays, resulting in an extended closure of the airport and stranded passengers.

“We sincerely apologize for the impact to travelers,” Kunishige wrote in an email.

“Passengers are allowed to stay in the terminal but on the nights referenced, we were unable to allow passengers back into the secure areas of the terminal once they departed because the security checkpoint was closed.” 

The U.S. Sun has reached out to John, United Airlines, and Kona International Airport, for comment.