Man ends up as sole passenger on flight after 18-hour delay

June 27 (UPI) -- A man who became the only passenger to stick out a nearly 18-hour delay for a scheduled flight from Oklahoma to North Carolina ended up getting the VIP treatment as the plane's sole passenger.

Phil Stringer, who lives in the Greensboro, N.C., area, said he waited 17 hours and 52 minutes before boarding his flight from Oklahoma City to Charlotte.

Stringer soon discovered all of the other passengers who were supposed to be on the flight had either caught other planes or given up on the long-delayed plane.

Stringer joked in a TikTok video that he had bought out every seat on the plane to avoid having to "deal with people."

He said the crew were in good spirits.

"They had to get called; they were at their hotel, like they were going to go to bed," Stringer told WSOC-TV. "I felt so badly because I was like, 'Oh my gosh, they literally had to come here for me.'"

He said he ended up making friends with the plane's crew during his flight.

"We joked, we laughed, we cut up. I exchanged phone numbers with them, like we're still literally texting today and group messaging," Stringer said.