The airline industry isn’t having a great time right now. There’s United, which settled with a passenger after he was violently removed from a flight and may have to settle again over a dead rabbit. Not to mention Delta, which caught flack for booting a family of four from an overbooked flight and forced another passenger off for using the restroom during a taxiing delay. “Well, at least Spirit Airlines is looking better these days,” someone out there probably thought to themselves. Sorry buddy, but as late Monday night news reports out of Florida suggest, you’re wrong.
According to ABC News, several fights broke out at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport overnight when Spirit cancelled multiple flights. Airport security and additional police were called to the scene when irritable customers, who had been waiting in long lines for hours as a result of the cancellations, began verbally, then physically assaulting one another. Several videos from the scene were posted on YouTube and Twitter.
“There were several people there that were upset,” a spokesperson from Broward County Sheriff’s Office told ABC News. “We were called in to just make sure that things were kept from getting very unruly.” One witness told the outlet they “saw two people go down on the floor and get… handcuffed and dragged out of here.” Another mentioned seeing people who were “very disappointed,” including a detained woman who “was quite upset and very vocal about her frustrations.”
https://twitter.com/brionkahalbert/status/861800023570436097
As Brionka Halbert explained on Twitter, she was just “trying to get back to NYC” when chaos ensued. “[I]’m tired its 2017.”
CNN later reported Spirit Airlines had cancelled at least 300 flights during the past week, resulting in “thousands of passengers angry” across the country. Why? Because, as Spirit Airlines spokesperson Paul Berry explained, the Airline Pilots Association, International is engaged in “unlawful” labor practices by encouraging pilots to delay flights. “These pilots have put their quest for a new contract ahead of getting customers to their destinations and the safety of their fellow Spirit Team Members,” read Berry’s statement.
Spirit filed a federal lawsuit against ALPA for its previously described unlawful labor practices. In a statement to CNN, however, the pilots union denies the charges. “ALPA and the Spirit pilots are continuing to do everything possible to help restore the company’s operations, which have experienced significant problems over the past several days,” their spokesperson claimed.