In a rare move, American Airlines American Airlines diverted a domestic flight to a foreign country and passengers are calling themselves illegal immigrants to the Bahamas.
American Airlines flight 2421 from San Juan to Miami wound up in Nassau on Saturday. Passengers couldn’t leave the terminal. Most weren’t carrying passports. “It’s like The Terminal with Tom Hanks” said one viewer of video on social media.
The roughly two hour journey ran into weather. Diversions of domestic flights are usually domestic, but between these two U.S. points are foreign country countries. Reportedly the pilot asked, ‘who here has their passports and who doesn’t?’ Crew timed out.
‘We land the plane, we’re sitting on the tarmac for two hours, we got off the plane, turns out the pilot can’t do overtime or something so we had to get off the plane,’ … ‘We got off here, we can’t leave the terminal cos we’re not allowed to be here, we are illegally here and not only can’t we leave the airport, we can’t leave the terminal, we can’t do anything.’
The passengers found themselves herded into a terminal chilled by air conditioning where they were left without food, water, or blankets overnight.
…’Matter of fact we’ve been looking at the computer, after a while they turned the computer off because they didn’t want us looking at it. ‘Now people are having medical emergencies, there’s medication on the plane, It’s on the plane!
The customer complained, ‘We’re on hour seven of being here; no food, no water, it’s cold, there’s no blankets, we have one bathroom for 100 people, dogs, children, no information.’
Eventually the plane was ferried out of Nassau that night, but it was twelve hours after that before passengers were flown on to Miami. And the Nassau airport is a pretty miserable place to be stuck overnight.
@italiankate @American Airlines #americanairlines #flight #flightdelay #customerservice ♬ original sound – italiankate
According to an American Airlines spokesperson,
On August 3, American Airlines flight 2421 with service from Puerto Rico (SJU) to Miami (MIA) was impacted by severe weather and diverted to Nassau (NAS). The flight continued on to MIA once the weather conditions allowed us to safely do so. Operating safely is always our priority — especially in dynamic weather events — and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience experienced as a result of the weather.
Last year JetBlue diverted a Newark – Fort Lauderdale flight to Nassau as well. And that was the first time in my own memory that I could think of this happening. It’s certainly undesirable for airlines and customers. I’d have rather seen American turn around and go back to San Juan if they were still able to do so.
But if you had your passport with you, you were good to go?
AA + Mierda = Amierdican
Passports, and any other physical ID, are antiquated in the age of facial recognition. Why do I need to prove my identity — you should be able to figure that out by looking at me.
If you are a DYKWIA, things can happen. I was once on a diverted Delta flight and the captain motioned me to leave the aircraft with him to do some airport shopping while the flight was being refueled.
They are not in the Bahamas “illegally.” They are there lawfully pursuant to International Treaty (Convention on International Civil Aviation) which obligates Bahamas to accept the plane making emergency maneuvers and properly care for the passengers. There is nothing illegal about their presence there.
If the US Government scrapped the US Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative which US DHS wanted the US Congress to pass, this would have been less of an issue.
I often carry a passport and Canadian money when flying a northerly US domestic route, like MSP-BOS. I also have Japanese money if the flight overflows Japan.
A similar thing happened to me except I was stuck in Costa Rica for eight hours. I had a passport but we were still told to stay in the hallway as CR immigration would not let us through. That was on Taca. It was a rather comically maddening experience. Our original flight from Honduras to Miami was canceled. We flew from SPS to SJO, sat for eight hours, then headed to Managua. the pilot came on and asked if anybody was getting off in Managua; no one spoke up. He said since we had a full load he was skipping Managua and took us straight to SPS – exactly where we started the adventure 12 hours earlier. From there we went to Miami arriving around midnight.
oh, Taca did bring out a drink cart in SJO
@derek – you actually carry cash? ATMs work pretty well, no?
SFO/EWR electronic recognition might well work in major air and sea terminals, but not everyone travels that way. Two weeks ago I was picked up by a long haul bus on a street corner in Warsaw and took it to Tallinn. The driver glanced at my passport just to make sure there were no questions. International movement like that, by car at remote border crossings, and by foot, ferry or train and so on remain very common. So passports are still very useful.
Even if everyone had passports – good luck getting American to pay a few bucks for immigration fee in Bahamas to let people through. The masters of efficiency would certainly not allow that. But maybe we should all empathize with AA, it’s not like Miami is their largest hub and Nassau is 50 minutes away.
What a whiny Karen. I’m sure AA didn’t want to set down in the Bahamas and did what they felt was best overall given the circumstances. The Bahamas aren’t going to give everyone e cots, blankets etc and I’m sure most can go a few hours w no food.
They survived and are likely home with a story to tell. Of course in the age of social media someone e has to whine. Again, what a Karen
Lying is part of the culture of American Airlines and most USA airlines so I wonder if the reason given was really the reason. A review of the NOAA site indicates that tropical storm force winds from Debby didn’t get anywhere near Miami. Even so, contingency planning would have more fuel put on the airplane so different scenarios could be considered if there was a problem at MIA. Also, since the flights to and from Puerto Rico are short enough, why not use crew who have the maximum time available to fly there and back when bad weather is forecast? Did the crew get to rest in hotels or were they also limited to the airport and stranded for the same amount of time? Personally, I have taken to carrying my passport with me when I fly across the USA because sometimes things happen.
JNS that isn’t quite accurate. SOFL was on the dirty side of the storm. Which the dirty side is always the NE quadrant of a hurricane. The dirty side gives you equally weather, and an enhanced chance of tornadoes occuring. I live in Broward, and along with Dade we certainly had feeder bands from the storm cycling through on Sat. In Miami, they were getting rocked pretty good Saturday evening. Later that night, almost all of Broward was under a tornado warning due to the thunderstorms associated with Debby.
While I can’t stand flying AA these days they weren’t lying on this one. But I don’t understand why they didn’t land in FLL. If I remember correctly, around the of the diversion things were quiet here.
Always keep my passport on me when I leave the country to go to Puerto Rico or Miami.
I once was on BOS to SEA and we landed in Thunder Bay Ontario while they fixed a fuel sensor or fuel gage. We were allowed off and they had a bar and restaurant where we drank Canadian beer and watched the first half of a CFL game. There was a Canadian RCMP officer but she mostly surfed her phone.
On landing in Seattle they asked if anyone bought something in Canada to please self report to about 4 or 5 CBP guys lining the jet bridge. They just let everyone pass.
It was actually a cool experience.
File this under $h!t happens. AA certainly did not want to divert to the Bahamas. It was making the best of a bad situation. Everyone made it back safely.
The Bahamas don’t spend money on things like customs – its still all very much old school. The problem here is that Bahamas customs didn’t allow anyone entry without a valid passport, which is required; so they had to stay in the US Preclearance section of the airport.
I was on a domestic Canadian flight and we ended up diverting to Anchorage; only myself and 5 of us had passports and were the 1st to get cleared; the rest of the folks on board were cleared manually by US customs and put up for the night – but it took them about 3 hours.
Ever since that flight, I carry my passport with me.
@derek … +1 . Bravo on the Yen .
@haolenate … +1 . If you fly Calgary to Vancouver , you can expect to divert to Alaska .
Every country has their rules! If it was in America you would’ve been treated the same way! In fact immigration would’ve had you watch like criminals until you leave! The airline is responsible for a passenger and fined if they’re not accounted for! The airline is also responsible for their passengers needs, but they were too cheap to spend the extra money to accommodate us! Nassau owed us nothing!!!
@Victor Warren, thanks for the personal observation of the weather at MIA. I tried to find out how many flights to or from MIA were altered due to weather but I could not find a precise answer that would be correct for the right time period. I know Florida has a lot of airports that the flight could have gone to if there was sufficient fuel. If FLL was ok for landing, the question of why land in Nassau still has to be answered.
I always travel with one of my passports. Never know when you might need to leave the country either inadvertently or in a hurry.
Diversion, understood.
Stuck in airport, u derstood.
No food, water, or blamkets? AA should have been able to handle this better!
I am glad there wasn’t a crash and everyone is safe and well lets complain about some nonsense over an unprecedented circumstance
@Tom: Someone has to be uninformed or a fool to have an ATM/debit card these days. I haven’t carried one in 20 years.
This is just funny:
@Tom: Someone has to be uninformed or a fool to have an ATM/debit card these days. I haven’t carried one in 20 years.
Do you use an abacus as well? What is your concern??
AA did not provide any food, or WATER o the passengers stuck in the terminal for 8 hours?
Why is that not a crime and AA employees aren’t going to jail for this?
Oh, yeah, deregulation. The US is really the pits.
The people who worry about debit cards/ATM cards are probably either preppers who worry about doomsday or people who worry about identity theft.
If people with medical conditions had their medications*on the plane!” – they’re fools. Medicine, keys and documents should never be put in checked baggage.
I wonder in this case if having the passport card or global entry card helps or makes no difference
Don’t blame Nassau International Airport for your crappy experience. Blame American Airlines who should have made sure that you guys were comfortable. Next time I bet you’ll travel with your passport. I am sure the American Airlines crew didn’t spend the night at the airport.
Raymond August 3: my flight was supposed to take off at 5:58pm on a Friday my flight was delayed till 9:15 at 9:15 they never answered the chande of gate I was getting text with the delayed info! So why check the screen the text didn’t contain no gate changes so I check the gate and I saw the gate changes I was still on time 9:15pm when I got the the gate was close! They told me to go to the rebooking line gate d37 so there was a big line it took 3 hours just to get to the service agents to give me a flight to 7pm this was on Friday! Slept on the floor from Friday to Saturday so at 7pm got on the plane the plane moved to take off just to announce that laguardia airport wasn’t taking no planes do to weather conditions so it turn around let us off on gate 19 miami and kept delaying the flight I already knew that I was getting on no flight!!! Another day sleeping on the airport again my 2 day!!! Got a number to tell me that they only had a flight on Tuesday 7:24 am so I had no choice mind you from Friday to Tuesday that’s 4 days! And I have a carry on that left on my first flight at laguardia so on Tuesday I landed on jfk had to travel laguardia airport to get my carry on!!! What a horrible experience never again I will be flying American airlines they service is terrible and terrifying
SFO/ EWR I’m sorry. Are you saying you expect the UK government to have the facial patterns and biometrics of every US citizen held not only centrally but also to go distributing all that data to even independent Crown Colonies. Or for the Bahamian Gov itself to hold the same information and complex data sets on American citizens? Coz that’s basically what you’re complaining about not being a thing.
I think a reasonable chunk of us have concerns about what our own government holds on us at times. Let alone every government around the world holding such ‘just in case’.
Was AA supposed to fly the plane in unsafe conditions? I don’t understand why people whine when sh*t happens. Carry snacks and your meds and water with you when you travel. You never know what will happen. It’s called adulting. I don’t board a plane without 3 days worth of meds, a full bottle of water and a number of snacks plus a jacket and a rain jacket plus a change of clothes.
Good for you AAnonymous butthat’s a bit OCD for normal people.
“one bathroom for 100 people, dogs, children, no information” First, your flight had 3 bathrooms for a plane that can hold 178 (passengers plus crew). Even if there is just a one one-person bathroom for 100, that isn’t relative crazy. And, I suspect there was really one “men’s” and one “women’s” that may have been multipurpose each. There are no seatbelt lights, so availability is about the same. And remember, you haven’t been given food or water. Second, yet another reason for no dogs, but it does address food needs if it dragged on. Third, people packed essential drugs? Sounds like a bad time made to look worse by whining and made worse by bad choices.
I can’t really fault them for no passports, but now I don’t look so silly for having mine on every flight. It’s just in a case in my backpack that is my only carryon every flight.
@alert – it was a flight to Whitehorse, and we couldnt land due to thick fog in the Yukon River valley.
BUT, I have heard of some flights bound for Van end up in Bellingham (for fuel) because other airports that were able to take on AC/WS/others were packed already.
I was on a flight from PHL to MIA in September, 2023. We were diverted to Nassau because of weather. Fortunately, when we were able to leave, there was a crew to take the plane to MIA. We were only there about 2 hours. Only crew got off the plane.
@haolenate,
The Bahamas spends a great deal of money on customs.
They have a large amount of import taxes on goods to the islands vs. Income taxes, so they’re use to people trying to fly to Miami to save money on big purchases.
They usually employee more people per average traveller to do bag searches on arrival, which are prominent for their own residents.
A lot of this is out of the hands of AA. I do wonder with weather all around the Caribbean maybe just cancelling the flight out SJU would have been more prudent. But I also understand the desire to get people to where they want to be.
AA Ops could have handled this better. The weather was no secret. As it was a short flight, the contingency of simply returning back to SJU should have been planned.
Interesting – I thought Republicans were alone in the world for thinking borders matter. Looks like the Bahamas have much stricter rules than Republicans propose
There is nothing that can justify not at least providing water and snacks for 12+ hours, especially with children and elderly people on board. I hope they sue American Airlines.
Could have been worse. They could have made you spend the night in downtown Nassau.
They were never “illegal immigrants” at any point for a myriad of reasons. I though this blog was better than clickbait titles like that. They basically had the status of ‘transit’ passengers. Which put them in no man’s land. However, to the folks saying that if you had your passport you wouldn’t have been trapped; I’m not so sure. I think it depends on whether border officials in the Bahamas were notified in advance by AA and wiling to let passport holders into the country..
And, I have to say, I’ve flown to Puerto Rico a bazillion times over the years and never brought my passport. Why not? Because I would never anticipate needing it. The odds of it being lost or stolen are far higher than the odds of something like this happening. Rough trip for all involved.
Everyone is commenting on the lack of a passport. The big lesson here is to always have your medication ON YOUR PERSON. Yes, people were inconvenienced but the people without their medication – they were in serious trouble. Agree that the Bahamian airport should have been more accommodating to all.
A bunch of whiners
I have been in that airport many times and never had a single problem and kind of like the fact that it is small
Remember when American was a great airline? Nah, me neither. I avoid them.
In these cases when I’ve been in them, they want to keep all the passengers together so when the flight is cleared to leave they’re all there, not some there, others in hotels resting or outside the airport eating or shopping. And would you have rather the airline press on and the plane go down? Plus, in answer to some posts, the decision to take off and to divert wasn’t made by AA, it was made by air traffic control, probably from Miami.
Never really thought about carrying a passport for a domestic flight, but this shows that flights going near to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean could need to land outside the USA. From what I have read most Americans don’t have passports as don’t travel outside our country unlike people from smaller countries.