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Delta passengers on 2 flights to Atlanta stuck on tarmac for hours after being diverted

Two international Delta Air Lines flights headed to Atlanta ended up stuck on a tarmac in Montgomery, Alabama, for several hours due to a customs issue after being diverted for weather. 'We fell short of how we aspire to serve and care for our customers amid thunderstorms in the Southeast U.S. Thursday evening,' a Delta spokesperson said. 'We are reaching out to each customer with a full refund of their booking.' Both flights were set to arrive in Atlanta Friday morning after being parked at Montgomery Regional Airport since Thursday night. Passengers and family members of a plane coming from Cabo San Lucas contacted Channel 2 Action News after the flight failed to arrive in Atlanta on time. Flight 1828, with 150 passengers on board, was expected to land around 8:10 p.m. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Weather conditions, including lightning activity and windshear, caused the flight to be rerouted to Montgomery. The plane landed in Montgomery around 10:30 p.m. local time, a Delta spokesperson told Channel 2 Action News. Passengers then sat on the tarmac, unable to get off the plane for hours since the flight was coming from an international location and there was no Customs and Border Protection staffing at that airport, the airline said. A second plane, Delta Flight 599 with 147 passengers aboard, faced a similar situation. It was travelling from Mexico City to Atlanta and forced to divert in Montgomery, landing there around 10:20 p.m. Delta said the plane doors remained open as passengers waited. The airline said the delay was made worse by when bad weather lingered longer than expected at Montgomery and flight crews ran over their permitted duty times. Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport was not suitable as a diversion airport because it also was experiencing severe thunderstorms. The company said they were now conducting 'a thorough review' of the incident in order to make improvements and prevent similar outcomes from happening in the future. TRENDING STORIES: 1 dead in I-20 crash in Cobb County; westbound shut down, eastbound reopens Pregnant woman, 19, killed in apparent murder-suicide in Austell, police say GA 911 caller hears dispatcher ordering McGriddle during emergency call [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]