Camden County Boy Scouts heading home from St. Croix after global tech outage canceled flight to Philadelphia
STRATFORD, N.J. (CBS) — A group of Boy Scouts from Camden County is on the way home Saturday after being stranded in Saint Croix.
Troop 122 landed in the Virgin Islands on July 12. The children, who range in age from 11 to 17, spent the last week earning merit badges and practicing lifesaving skills while staying at a 17-acre seafront campground called Camp Howard M. Wall.
The scouts' flight to Philadelphia was supposed to leave on Friday but got canceled because of the global tech outage. The scouts were told it could be a week before they could get on another flight.
Scoutmaster Stacey White said he's relieved that Spirit Airlines was able to add a flight so the group could leave Saturday night. The troop is scheduled to arrive at Philadelphia International Airport early Sunday morning.
"Very happy," White said. "It's a lot of responsibility having 30-some kids knowing that they're running out of their medications and some of them, when they're out of medications, have withdrawal symptoms — whatever it is, it was not going to be pretty."
White said he got a phone call from New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, who wanted to make sure the children were OK.
