An American Airlines flight from Miami to the UK returned on Wednesday night after a passenger refused to wear a mask.
The flight was heading to London with 129 passengers on board when one person decided the rules didn’t apply to them and the plane was forced to go back home.
The flight was then met by police at Miami International Airport but the police said the passenger, a woman in her 40s was not arrested, according to CBS station WFOR-TV.
The woman was refusing to comply with the federal mask requirements mid-flight and was the plane was forced to turn around after already having flown 800kms.
“Once the plane made it to the gate, the passenger was escorted off the plane by MDPD officers without incident. The passenger was then dealt with administratively by American Airlines staff,” police staff told CNN.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records, this is happening on flights up to 16 times per day and there is a total of 4,290 “mask related incidents” on record.
A flight attendant told the Guardian: “I go to work now and I always worry what’s going to happen, what’s going to trip somebody up, trigger their anger. It’s a whole new ballgame out there right now and it’s a different type of passenger we’re seeing.”
Even though it may seem like a dramatic response to turn a plane around, the other passengers were heard cheering over the decision on a TikTok released by Jordan Slade.
“We thank our crew for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” American Airlines said in a statement.
