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Ashley Hayes reporting The first flight into Utah from Honolulu arrived this morning at Salt Lake International. The passengers we spoke with said being back in Utah has never felt so good.
It was hard to miss the passengers from flight 1826: The straw hats, the leis, and this time, the weary expressions.
Christian Rasband, Returned from Hawaii: "We just feel lucky to be home today."
These Utahns' vacation stories don't revolve around suntans and luaus; they survived an earthquake.
Sherri Jenkins, Returned from Hawaii: "You're kind of shocked at first and I kind of looked around... Gosh what do you do. There was this whole wall of windows I was like oh my gosh it that gonna crash? Are the ceiling fans going to land on us? So I hurried and put my head down under a little table and then it stopped."
Travelers spent hours at the Honolulu airport Sunday trying to find out if and when they would make it back here. They say flight 1826 into Salt Lake City was one of the only planes Delta allowed out of Hawaii.
Passengers said they spent 12 hours without power and couldn't get any gas to fill up their cars. They say it was paradise up until Sunday morning.
Sherri Jenkins, Returned from Hawaii: "We were having breakfast up at the lounge and when it hit everything came crashing down. There was lots of plates and bowls and stuff that crashed on the floor. There was lots of noise of the rumble. Yea we were right in the middle of it."
Newlyweds Christian and Monica Rasband were in Oahu for their honeymoon.
Monica Rasband, Returned from Hawaii: "We were in the same situation as a lot of people who had to check out of their hotels with nowhere to go. We went to the airport with the long lines and they couldn't tell us anything."
At one point, the Rasbands said a Hawaiian radio station was reporting 5,000 people were stranded at the Honolulu airport. As they picked up their bags this morning in Salt Lake they were grateful to no longer be one of them.
The Rasbands say they are blessed to be back and on their way home to Provo. They say they'll have quite the story to tell their kids one day.
