3 failed landings and 7 hours in the sky, Air Canada flight returns to Pearson Airport in Mississauga, Ontario [Video]

Groundhog Day was last Friday, but for those on board an Air Canada flight that left Pearson Airport in Mississauga on Monday for the country’s East Coast only to return to its starting point just over six hours later, it must’ve seemed like the day repeated itself.

Air Canada Flight AC698 left Pearson on Monday night at about 9:45 p.m. and quickly climbed to its cruising altitude headed for St. John’s, Newfoundland.

It was supposed to be a three-hour flight, but as circumstances unfolded — largely due to nasty winter weather that had earlier brought record-breaking heaps of snow to the Maritimes — it turned into a near-seven-hour experience in the air that would end up going, well, nowhere.

On approach several hours later to St. John’s International Airport, the Air Canada Boeing 737 Max 8, which can carry up to 178 passengers, was unable to land on a first …