Chaos broke out at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida when Spirit Airlines Inc passengers ended up brawling with their staff over cancelled flights. While the Florida-based carrier shifted the blame to its pilots, nearly 20,000 customers were affected by the fiasco. This has cost the company revenue worth $8.5 million along with a whole lot of public shaming.
The airlines has filed a lawsuit against its pilots to refrain them from purposefully and unlawfully disrupting their operations. Three arrests were made at the end of the scuffle, with passengers threatening to harm employees. This brings the grand total of arrests made by the airlines in the past week to 300.
Deputies from the Broward County Sheriff stepped into the scene when a crowd of nearly 500 passengers began behaving aggressively. Video footage from the airport shows travelers fighting with each other as security officials attempted to bring order at the airport.
The spokesman of the airlines, Paul Berry said in a statement, “We are shocked and saddened to see the videos of what took place.” According to reports, 11 flights were cancelled at Fort Lauderdale Airport and 31 others were delayed. It wasn’t long before the footage of the brawls was shared widely on social media with Twitter hitting out at the US airlines.
Many haters compared Spirit Airlines with United Airlines, who had received flak for dragging a passenger off an aircraft, the subsequent scandal of which hurt the carrier’s image.
@SpiritAirlines More like hi, book a flight with us then we’ll cancel it and take your money
Oh you’re sorry? With a __? That’s really going to make getting to my graduation so much easier. Thanks @SpiritAirlines pic.twitter.com/VS0ZjCKhIK
— Jessica Moline (@JessMoline) May 10, 2017
My sis has been trying to get outta LAX 4 12 hrs, now on tarmac, @SpiritAirlines citing maintenance issues no pilot n sight #spiritairlines
— Dianna De La Garza (@DiannaDeLaGarza) May 10, 2017
spirit airlines can go join united in the corner
— _Jada_ (@dollfacemongeau) May 9, 2017
Long delay/cancellation? For only $12/pp Upgrade to Spirit Airlines new Fight Club Class *certain restrictions applypic.twitter.com/paSoD7TeQS
— __ia_ (@nia4_trump) May 9, 2017
I feel like @SpiritAirlines is actually a social experiment to see how much bs one individual can take before losing it
— mikala trilliams (@talladultchild) May 9, 2017
Do they call themselves Spirit Airlines because they’re extremely good at crushing yours?_
— Regal Luke (@Wolf_am_I87) May 9, 2017
Spirit airlines has mass cancellations! They are so garbage, never buy a ticket from them! Now on my second cancellation! #spiritairlines
— clinton schultz (@clintonschultz3) May 6, 2017
Do they call themselves Spirit Airlines because they’re extremely good at crushing yours?_
— Regal Luke (@Wolf_am_I87) May 9, 2017
Flight cancelled. Never flying @SpiritAirlines again.
— Gee Oh (@younggioo) May 9, 2017
On bright side, I’ve never seen anyone dragged off a Spirit Airlines plane; they must cancel all flights before someone can be dragged off.
— Wes Borucki (@CrimsonTideWes) May 9, 2017
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