Delayed flight turns into Newfoundland kitchen party at Pearson International Airport
All that was needed was a guitar, an accordion and a group of enthusiastic people waiting to fly home
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians kept up their reputation for making the best of a bad situation Monday night, when a group of them turned a delayed flight into an impromptu singalong.
Passengers had just found out their WestJet flight from Toronto to St. John's was going to be delayed for just over 30 minutes.
So, Sheldon Thornhill thought it would be a good time to break out his accordion, and fellow musician Sean Sullivan opened his guitar case to ramp up the fun.
Add a group of enthusiastic singers who knew the words to some classic songs, and all the ingredients for a Newfoundland kitchen party were there.
"My buddy with the accordian, Sheldon ... I'm a bit shyer than he is," said Sullivan. "Anytime we're gathered around airports like that, he's often taking out his accordian just out of the blue and start playing for people."
A few dozen people joined in singing a handful of songs such as Grey Foggy Day, Sweet Forget Me Not, and Music and Friends.
Even the youngsters got involved, with 10-year-old Liam Corrigan standing front-and-centre to sing Capelin Time by The Dunne Family.
"We knew he was a good singer so he came over and did a couple of solos on his own so that made the occasion all that much sweeter, you know," Sullivan told the St. John's Morning Show.
"He sang for me and Sheldon up in Trepassey when he was only six years old ... I knew he was a decent singer and I didn't realize how good he's after improving."
The WestJet captain was singing along, Sullivan said, adding that most people seemed to appreciate the entertainment after hours of travel.
Videos go viral
Michelle Sacrey Philpott recorded several of the songs and posted them on Facebook, and by the time her flight landed in St. John's, they had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
"Everyone was talking about the videos when we got off the flight because so many people seen it, it was quite funny," she said.
Check out the videos below:
With files from Fred Hutton