Passengers aboard a Cathay Pacific flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong endured a nightmare journey that may have just broken the record for the world's longest commercial flight - but not in distance.
Flight CX883 took off from LAX at 12:55 am on August 4 with nearly 300 passengers onboard, expecting a 13-hour transpacific trip.
But a freak weather event over Hong Kong turned the flight into a 29-hour ordeal in the sky - and on the tarmac.
Just as the 15-year-old Boeing 777 descended to 5,000 feet for final approach into Hong Kong International Airport, torrential rainfall forced pilots to abort the landing.
The city was slammed with more than 13.8 inches of rain in mere hours, prompting officials to issue a rare 'black' rainstorm warning - the territory's most severe weather alert and the highest August rainfall since 1884.
