MIAMI (CBSMiami) – An American Airlines London-bound flight from Miami was forced to turn around Wednesday night after a couple refused to wear their masks.
Flight 38 was about an hour and a half into its flight to Heathrow Airport when it circled back and returned to Miami International Airport.
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Publicly, American Airlines is only saying the flight returned “…due to a disruptive customer refusing to comply with the federal mask requirement.”
A source told CBS4 News the couple was suspected of being intoxicated, which does not come as a surprise to CBS Travel Editor Peter Greenberg.
“As long as they are not counting the number of people getting on planes already drunk, because so many of these cases involve alcohol consumption prior to boarding the plane – if they don’t address that this could be the new normal for the rest of the year,” said Greenberg.
CBS4’s source says that among the couple one person was more of the problem.
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The decision not to continue with the flight was made because they did not want to fly another 7 hours with passengers who are disruptive and non-compliant.
Police dispatch called for officers to meet the plane at Gate D14. Once the plane landed, more than 100 passengers were informed they had to get off the plane.
“We weren’t given any instructions, just told that we had to go back and now we can’t get our luggage,” said one passenger.
Many on the plane had no idea why it returned to Miami.
“Disappointed. They wouldn’t really say anything and I don’t think they told the flight attendants anything because all they would say is there was an extreme incident and they had to turn around,” said one passenger.
“They just told us to get off and the police were there,” said another passenger.
American Airlines issued a statement apologizing for the inconvenience.
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