American Airlines plane.Photo: Tom Pennington/Getty
A London-bound flight was forced to return to Miami International Airport Wednesday night after a traveler aboard the plane refused to comply with the federal mask rule, American Airlines confirmed to PEOPLE in a statement.
Laura Masvidal, a spokeswoman with American Airlines, stated Thursday the passenger was added to the airline’s internal refuse list pending further investigation.
“American Airlines flight 38 with service from Miami (MIA) to London (LHR) returned to MIA due to a disruptive customer refusing to comply with the federal mask requirement. The flight landed safely at MIA where local law enforcement met the aircraft. We thank our crew for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” said American Airlines in the statement.
Another passenger told the news outlet, “Disappointed. 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.”
In September of last year, the Transportation Security Administrationannouncedit would financially penalize travelers who refuse to wear masks. It remains unclear whether or not the passenger in this case will be fined.
As of Jan. 19, the U.S. is seeing an average of 753,990 new COVID-19 cases a day, according toThe New York Times, and 158,638 Americans are currently hospitalized with the virus.
The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will bedistributing millions of free face masksacross the country in another effort to combat the latest surge of cases and the highly contagious omicron variant.
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source: people.com
