Unruly Spirit Airlines Passenger Leaves Travelers Stranded For More Than 10 Hours

Image courtesy of (shakedown.dave)

A Spirit Airlines flight from L.A. to Ft. Lauderdale had to make an unexpected — and incredibly prolonged — stop in Houston on Sunday, all because of an unruly passenger.

The nature of the problem is vague, though the airline tells the Houston Chronicle that the passenger’s behavior had become “disruptive” to the point where the pilot felt the only option was to make an emergency landing at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

Unfortunately, that decision resulted in the plane sitting on the tarmac for about an hour, with passengers then spending another 10 hours spent waiting at the gate with little or no information from Spirit regarding the status of the flight. KHOU-TV also reports that the passengers were not provided any food.

“We understand that this was an inconvenience for our customers,” a Spirit rep tells the Chronicle, “but the safety of our customers is always top priority. All customers are being given full refunds for this inconvenience.”

The rep explains that the biggest impediment to getting the passengers back up in the air is that Spirit does not currently operate out of IAH, “so we coordinated resources with the airport and deplaned customers as quickly as possible and sent another plane as quickly as possible.”

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