In a shocking incident, passengers of Spirit Airlines in the United States claimed that they were forced to wait more than seven hours in the plane before takeoff since there was no pilot to fly it, as per a report in People Magazine. Flight 1736 was scheduled to depart from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Richmond, Virginia on August 15 and cover the distance in 2.5 hours.
A passenger on the flight, Lindsey Mascera, recorded a video of the same and shared it on TikTok. It showed a plane full of passengers who waited seven hours inside the aircraft. "So we have 200 passengers on this flight right now. Everyone's luggage is down there. How long have you been waiting?" she asked another passenger, as mentioned by the outlet. "Seven hours," the woman responded in the video.
Ms Mascera added, "So (Spirit Airlines representatives) told us it was going to be 30 minutes, and we're all still on this flight at 10:44. It's almost 11 p.m. and we've been here since 3 p.m. We got delayed and now we're back and there's no pilots to be found and there's no answer." The video ended with the woman stating, "Do not ride Spirit. They s***."
In another clip, a flight attendant told passengers aboard Flight 1736 that "we are not allowed to deplane even though you've been here for over an hour."
Spirit Airlines, in a statement to the outlet, stated that the flight returned to the gate "due to air traffic control-imposed delays and weather conditions. Once at the gate, our Guests were offered access to the terminal. Despite our best efforts, the continued ATC and weather delays affected our abilities to reschedule, and we later cancelled the flight."
They continued, "Our Guests were offered the option to rebook on the next available Spirit flight or request a refund. We apologize for the inconvenience."
