ALERT: Florida- Altercation at Fort Lauderdale Airport (May 9, 2017)
May 9, 2017
Police were called the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport last night due to irate passengers on canceled Spirit Airlines flights.
The Miami Herald reports:
Canceled flights led Spirit Airlines passengers to scream, shout and throw punches at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Cellphone video shows a crowd of riled-up passengers swarming the ticket check-in counter for Spirit Airlines Monday evening after nine flights were canceled, leaving hundreds stranded. In one clip, at least two women start swinging at the Broward sheriff’s deputies. Another video shows one of the woman being led away and someone held on the ground by deputies.
According to CNN:
About 300 Spirit flights have been canceled over the past seven days leaving thousands of passengers angry. The airline says its own pilots are behind the cancellations and is suing them in federal court.
Passengers across the country faced hours-long delays and flight cancellations for days. By Monday night, some travelers in Florida had enough.
USA Today explained what led to the altercation:
Spirit Airlines filed a suit Monday against its pilot union, alleging “an unlawful job action by Spirit pilots.”
Spirit said the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and some of its members are “purposely and unlawfully disrupting the airline’s operations.”
In its suit, Spirit accused the union of being “engaged in a pervasive illegal work slowdown that has caused approximately 300 flight cancellations and has disrupted the travel plans of over 20,000 customers. … The Spirit pilots’ concerted refusal to accept junior assignments or pick up open time flying has dramatically impacted Spirit’s operations leading to cancellations throughout its system, and most particularly for flights departing from Fort Lauderdale, Chicago-O’Hare, Detroit, and Las Vegas.”
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