(CMR) Passengers on an American Airlines flight from Miami to Grand Cayman said they spent hours stuck inside the plane without water after their flight was grounded for five hours.
One passenger on Flight AA1300 told CMR that passengers were given several excuses as they sat in the plane awaiting departure.
“Every time was a different excuse from AA. First, they told us that the place where we put the luggage was broken and would take time to fix; Second, they told us that the crew had to exit because of the flight hours,” the passenger said, adding that they waited for hours without any update from the airline.
The passenger who described it as “the worst experience of my life” said inside the plane was hot and uncomfortable for passengers.
The flight, which was scheduled to depart at 10:22 am, departed at 3:34 pm. Passengers said they were aware of the true reason for the delay when they arrived in the Cayman Islands.
Several flights in Florida were delayed for hours on Monday due to air traffic control issues, the Federal Aviation Administration said. It is not clear if the flight to Cayman was affected.
“The FAA is working toward safely returning to a normal traffic rate in the Florida airspace,” the agency said in a statement.
The FAA said it had “slowed the volume of air traffic into Florida airspace due to an air traffic computer issue.”
The FAA said the issue was with the En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) system at the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center. That center is responsible for controlling millions of cubic miles of airspace for commercial flights over Florida.
The FAA said earlier that Monday would be a busy post-Christmas travel day with 42,000 flights scheduled, “with possible heavier volume from south to north.”
Airports affected included the Miami International Airport (MIA), Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), and Orlando International Airport (MCO).
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