Haiti has been coping with fairly a little bit of unrest in recent times, which has been difficult for airline operations, when it comes to balancing the will to serve markets with demand, whereas additionally factoring in security. For probably the most half, US airways have resumed service to Haiti as of earlier this yr, although with new security protocols.
Properly, I think that’s about to vary, given an incident that occurred in the present day…
Spirit Airways jet hit by bullets on method to Port-au-Prince
This incident occurred in the present day (Monday, November 11, 2024), and includes Spirit Airways flight NK951, scheduled to fly from Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to Port-au-Prince (PAP). The 720-mile flight was operated by a one-year-old Airbus A320neo with the license plate N966NK.
The plane took off at 9:16AM native time, starting the roughly two hour flight to Haiti. Nevertheless, whereas on method to Port-au-Prince, the airplane was shot at, with a number of bullets piercing the fuselage, towards the rear a part of the plane.
Video footage and photos from contained in the cabin present injury to some overhead bins. One flight attendant was additionally injured, and was reportedly grazed by a bullet. Gosh, while you’re on method to an airport, you don’t anticipate that you just’re going to be shot at, in order that’s fairly terrifying.
The jet diverted to close by Santiago de los Caballeros, within the Dominican Republic, which doesn’t have the identical points with unrest, and is barely 124 miles away. The airplane touched down there at round 11:32AM, 2hr16min after it departed Fort Lauderdale.
The airline is now arranging to have one other plane despatched to the Dominican Republic to select up passengers, and fly them again to Fort Lauderdale. In spite of everything, you possibly can’t simply strand folks out of the country.
Airways are suspending flights to Port-au-Prince
As you’d anticipate, the US airways that do fly to Port-au-Prince have made the choice to droop flights in the interim. A JetBlue flight was enroute to Port-au-Prince when the incident occurred, and the choice was made to return to Fort Lauderdale.
Airways like American, JetBlue, and Spirit, have all canceled their Port-au-Prince flights for the approaching days. Whereas these cancelations are only for just a few days in the interim, I wouldn’t be shocked to see these cancelations prolonged for much longer than that.
Backside line
A Spirit Airways Airbus A320neo was shot at whereas on method to Port-au-Prince this morning. The bullets handed via the fuselage and into the cabin, inflicting a minor damage to one of many flight attendants. The excellent news is at the very least that the accidents weren’t extra critical.
Many airways at the moment are suspending service to Port-au-Prince, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see that prolonged for fairly a while…
What do you make of this Spirit Airways incident in Port-au-Prince?
