American Airlines passengers say they were stuck in the hot sun on a Boeing plane that had electrical problems in Miami before being transferred to another plane Thursday. (Photos by Terry Barber and Bobby Barber)
American Airlines passengers were stuck inside a stuffy Boeing plane for more than an hour while waiting to depart from Miami to Costa Rica late Thursday night, two travelers told FOX Business.
Passengers on American Airlines Flight 1353 said they were removed from the plane twice before being transferred to another aircraft at Miami International Airport. The Boeing 737 eventually took off about five hours after its scheduled departure, according to FlightAware data, and arrived in San Jose early this morning.
“All the little kids were crying. The second time we got on, the temperature on the plane was probably at least 95 degrees. It was awful,” passenger Daniel Solana, who was with his 3-year-old son for his nephew’s baptism, told FOX Business. “Most of the passengers were upset and just wanted an explanation. Every time they let us off, they didn’t give us an explanation.”
Video obtained by FOX Business shows passengers waving paper around in an attempt to cool themselves down, and the captain saying over the intercom, “We don’t have any power today.” Another video shows the cabin lights flickering, and a disgruntled passenger yelling, “Not again!”
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Passengers on American Airlines Flight 1353 are informed the plane is experiencing electrical problems. (Courtesy of Terry Barber and Bobby Barber)
American Airlines said Friday it was investigating the situation.
Solana said that the first time she flew on a plane, “it was a little hot” and “they kept telling me there were electrical issues, but nothing else.”
About an hour and 20 minutes later, passengers were ordered off the plane, Solana said.
| Ticker | safety | last | change | change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | American Airlines Group | 13.84 | +0.02 | +0.14% |
| BA | Boeing | 174.52 | +2.31 | +1.34% |
“They basically said we were just going to fix the plane and get going, and we were sitting in the terminal going, ‘OK, are we going to fix the power outage?’ There were a lot of issues going on, especially with the Boeing, and it was a Boeing 737,” he said.
Solana said passengers were told to board the plane again, but the cabin was still hot.
“Both times I was on the plane, I was sweating the whole time,” he said. “I had to go to the bathroom, get a napkin and wipe my face.”
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An American Airlines plane is seen at Miami International Airport on May 9, 2024. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
After remaining on the runway for another hour, Solana said they tried four or five times to start the plane’s engines without the help of generators but were unsuccessful, eventually forcing the plane to deplane a second time, with some passengers yelling, “Open the door, open the door, it’s hot!”
Another passenger, Bobby Barber, who was traveling to Costa Rica with his mother for a wedding, told FOX Business: “As soon as we started to back out, the lights went out again and the pilot kept turning the wheel to try and get the plane started again, and that’s when everyone started screaming.”
Solana added: “It had been four hours already. I was with my son, there were other kids on the plane and it was hot. They didn’t offer us water or chips or anything. That’s my only complaint.”
Solana said passengers were eventually placed on the second plane, which was “comfortable and cooler” than the first, but they had to wait a little longer before departure because flight attendants had to remove “excessively intoxicated” passengers and their luggage.
An American Airlines Boeing 737 takes off from Miami, Florida on December 29, 2020. (Reuters/Marco Bello/Fox News)
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“When we got to Costa Rica, the funny thing was, the bridge of the jet was broken,” Solana said.
