The National Post reports in its Thursday edition that an Air Canada flight that was supposed to make a three-hour flight from Toronto to St. John's on Monday instead spent almost seven hours in the air, and ended up back where it started. The unbylined item says that Flight AC-698 left Toronto on time at 9:43 p.m. Monday, according to data from Flightaware. However, trouble occurred on approach to St. John's, which like much of Eastern Canada was in the grip of a major storm. Data show the Boeing 737 Max 8 dropping to about 600 metres in preparation for a landing, before looping around for a second try, then briefly entering a holding pattern. After a third attempt, the plane climbs away from the airport and heads back to Toronto, where it landed at 4:20 a.m., more than three hours late and having gone nowhere. Air Canada said strong crosswinds prevented the flight from landing safely. Eddie Sheerr, a meteorologist at NTV News in St. John's, tweeted out his sympathy for the passengers: "To those of you on the flight, my heart goes out to you as I know what that's like. But please keep in mind that any choice made in flight deck has your safety in mind." He added, "The weather will be better tomorrow."