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  • A Frontier Airlines captain paid for pizza for an entire plane full of passengers after the flight from Washington, D.C., to Denver was diverted to Cheyenne, Wyo., because of bad weather on Monday, July 7, 2014. (Credit: Logan Marie Torres)
  • A Frontier Airlines captain paid for pizza for an entire plane full of passengers after the flight from Washington, D.C., to Denver was diverted to Cheyenne, Wyo., because of bad weather on Monday, July 7, 2014. (Credit: Logan Marie Torres)
  • A Frontier Airlines captain paid for pizza for an entire plane full of passengers after the flight from Washington, D.C., to Denver was diverted to Cheyenne, Wyo., because of bad weather on Monday, July 7, 2014. (Credit: Logan Marie Torres)

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A three-hour Frontier Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Denver on Monday turned into seven hours after severe weather rumbled through Denver.

Flight 719 left Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport at 6:40 p.m. EDT Monday, nearly an hour late, according to data by FlightAware.

When bad weather rolled into the Denver metro area, the flight circled in western Nebraska before having to land at Cheyenne Regional Airport because the plane was running low on fuel.

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Flight pattern of Frontier Airlines flight 719 from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to Denver International Airport on Monday, July 7, 2014. Bad weather forced the plane to land in Cheyenne, Wyo., where the captain bought pizza for all of the passengers while waiting for clearance to return to Denver. (Credit: FlightAware)

After waiting about an hour on the ground, the captain “realized we had all gone without real substance for hours longer than planned,” passenger Logan Marie Torres, who is also Miss Colorado United States Teen 2014, said.

Torres said the plane was hot because the engines were not running and passengers were getting agitated.

Logan Marie Torres
Logan Marie Torres

That’s when the captain, Berhard Brandner, made an announcement over the intercom.

“The captain took his own initiative,” Torres said.   He said “Ladies and gentleman, Frontier Airlines is known for being one of the cheapest airlines in the U.S., but your captain is not cheap,” Torres recounted. “I just ordered pizza for the entire plane.”

Torres said more than 50 pizzas were delivered to the airplane while it was sitting on the tarmac.

Torres followed up that the flight plane was on the ground for about two hours in Cheyenne before getting the go-ahead to fly back to Denver. It arrived at Denver International Airport just after midnight, nearly five hours late.

But at least the passengers didn’t land on empty stomachs.