An unruly, 81-year-old blind passenger aboard a Spirit Airlines red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Florida forced the pilot to make an emergency landing in Texas for a 19-hour layover with about 100 on board.
Spirit Airlines Airbus A319 from Los Angeles departed on time at 9:58 p.m. PT Saturday, with a scheduled landing at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport at 6 a.m. Sunday. Midway through the flight, however, the disruptive passenger forced the pilot to make an emergency landing at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport, where the roughly 100 passengers remained for most of the next day, KTRK-TV reported.
The elderly blind man was kicking and screaming, passengers told ABC News Ft. Lauderdale affiliate Local 10 News.
Passengers were reportedly kept in the plane on the tarmac for several hours, without air conditioning, before being allowed into the terminal. The airline then told the waylaid passengers that they would be shuttled by bus five hours north to Dallas, because Spirit does not operate a flight between Houston and Ft. Lauderdale.
Passengers then became irate, yelling and screaming at airline staff.
"It was terrible. It was unreal. It was painful," passenger Theresa Shaviano told Local 10.
Spirit Airlines eventually decided to fly the passengers in a different plane, and the flight arrived in South Florida about 8 p.m. Sunday, 12 full hours after the scheduled arrival time.
The airline said time constraints with the crew prevented the original plane from taking off from Houston.
"We understand that this has been an inconvenience for our customers, but the safety of our customers is always the top priority," the airline said in a statement. "All customers are being given full refunds for this inconvenience."
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