Flight makes U-turn over Atlantic because of ‘extreme incident’: another mask dispute

MIAMI, Florida (WFOR) — A woman who refused to wear a mask forced an unscheduled landing of an American Airlines flight — and because it was over the Atlantic Ocean, it had to go all the way back to Miami.

Flight 38 had taken off from Miami International Airport just before 8 p.m. Wednesday and was due at London’s Heathrow about nine hours later. But less than an hour in, it made a U-turn.

Most of the more than 100 passengers had no idea what was going on.

“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.

The plane was back on the ground in Miami at 9:24 p.m. The FlightAware flight tracker noted an unusually long 30-minute gap before the gate arrival, where the plane was met by police officers.

There, the London-bound passengers were told the flight was canceled and they’d have to get off and rebook.

American Airlines issued a statement apologizing for the inconvenience:

“American Airlines Flight 38 … returned to MIA due to disruptive customer refusing to comply with the federal mask requirement. The flight landed at MIA where local law enforcement met the aircraft. We thank our crew for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”