The sit-in lasted for five hours before Dragonair management promised cash compensation and free breakfasts at 6.30am.

The airline also offered free hotel accommodation to those remaining in Hong Kong, though most of the 41 were connecting with flights to other destinations.

Flight KA-803 departed from Shanghai at 11.30am on Wednesday and was due in Hong Kong at 2pm.

However, due to the lightning and black rainstorm warning it was diverted to Macau where it landed at 3.13pm.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 280 passengers were further delayed by civil aviation guidelines on flight crews' duty hours so a replacement crew had to be sent.

The aircraft eventually left Macau at midnight, arriving in Hong Kong an hour later. Most of the passengers disembarked but 41 remained in their seats.

"It was completely a trap to cheat us," said a passenger surnamed Xu, traveling with his family.

"We felt like we were abandoned after landing in Macau. A deputy manager from Dragonair just appeared once and asked us to wait."

Xu said during the long wait a pregnant woman fell sick and requested hot water as well as a blanket but no crew member offered assistance.

The airline offered passengers a meal during their wait and arranged for those in a hurry to take a high-speed ferry back to Hong Kong at 8pm.

"No cabin crew member provided a reasonable explanation for the poor arrangement," Xu said.

Another passenger, who took a connecting flight to Phnom Penh at 9am yesterday, said: "We stayed on board and refused to leave until the company promised compensation."

A Dragonair spokesman apologized and said affected travelers staying in Hong Kong would be provided with hotel accommodation or transport to their destinations.

However, 33 passengers caught connecting flights to Phnom Penh or Taipei.

A total of 203 flights were delayed during Wednesday's lightning and black rainstorm warning.

A FedEx cargo plane, which left Hong Kong at 8pm for Paris, had to return and make an emergency landing after being struck by lightning about 100 minutes into the flight.