A dream trip for some Bay Area high school musicians is turning into a travel nightmare after they were left stranded because of the heat wave in Europe.
Saratoga High School's principal said orchestra, band and choir students have been on a two-week tour of central Europe, performing in Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Germany and Prague.
118 Saratoga High School students and about 40 adult chaperones left SFO on Jul. 8 for the trip.
But on Wednesday night, less than six hours before they had to get to an airport in Prague for a flight home, they received a notice from airline company Lufthansa that their flight was canceled.
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Now, those Saratoga High School students and adults are stuck in Prague.
Dozens more students and chaperones, from two other high schools, who were flying Delta, are stranded at JFK in New York.
Arun Venkatachar is just one of dozens of Saratoga High School parents with concerns.
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“It’s been 40-plus hours now, and we still don’t have a plan for bringing the kids back home,” he said.
Some parents told NBC Bay Area that Lufthansa said there might not be a flight that can take the whole group until August.
“So everybody is worried about how soon we can get back home. As of today, it has been almost 48 hours and we don’t have any news out of Lufthansa on any schedule,” said Dhiraj Bora, a Saratoga high school parent who is stranded in Europe.
But a Lufthansa spokesperson told NBC Bay Area in an email Friday night that the airline is working to get everyone on a flight back to the U.S. as soon as possible.
The parents are hoping that’s true.
“Lufthansa needs to honor their commitment and come through,” Bora said.
Bora said a tour company and the school are covering everyone’s accommodations in Prague, but the students need to get back to prepare for school that starts in about three weeks and parents need to get back to jobs.
