A three hour flight turned into a nine hour ordeal, as passengers aboard ExpressJet 2816 told of their horror of being confined all night in a small plane after a series of problems.

The ExpressJet flight 2816 from Houston to Minneapolis should have taken three hours, but the aircraft was forced to divert to Rochester where 47 passengers then spent the night trapped inside a plane, complaining of foul over-used toilets and screaming babies.

Passengers couldn’t believe that the airline was unable to work out an alternative besides keeping passengers on the plane for such a long time.

“It’s not like you’re on a (Boeing) 747 and you can walk around,” passenger Link Christin said.

“This was a sardine can… It was a nightmare.”

Spokesperson for the airline, Kristy Nicholas, said the flight suffered a series of problems, as the crew reached maximum work hours, forcing another crew to be flown in.  Passengers were not allowed into the airport as security screeners had gone home.

Mr Christin said that passengers were not given any food and had to put up with crying babies and smelly toilets.

“The smell of the bathroom was getting worse, the smell of the babies was getting worse,” he said.

The passengers finally made it to Minneapolis approximately 11 hours late.

ExpressJet have apologised for the incident.

Thanks to news.com.au for the above quotes.