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An airplane on its way from Miami to London turned around mid-flight and went back to Florida after a woman on board refused to mask up, officials said.
American Airlines flight 38 aborted its planned international trip as it flew above the Atlantic Ocean about an hour-and-a-half after taking off on Wednesday just before 8 p.m., according to reports and flight tracking site Flightaware.
Airline spokeswoman Laura Masvidal confirmed the incident in a statement to The Post, saying a “disruptive customer refusing to comply with the federal mask mandate” was the reason the Boeing 777 landed back at Miami International Airport.
“The flight landed safely at MIA where local law enforcement met the aircraft,” Masvidal said. “We thank our crew for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
The maskless passenger, described as in her 40s, was escorted off the plane but not charged by police, according to CBS Miami.
But she was put on the American Airline’s internal no-fly list pending further investigation, according to the company’s spokesperson.
The 129 passengers and 14 crew members on the plane were temporarily stranded back in the US, leaving some passengers scrambling and confused when they returned to the airport.
Airlines so far this year have already reported 151 incidents with unruly passengers, including 92 that were mask-related, according to Federal Aviation Administration data. Of those, 32 have sparked investigations and four cases have seen enforcement action initiated, the data show.
Last year there were 5,981 unruly passenger incidents, with a whopping 4,290 that were mask-related, according to the FAA.
With Post wires
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