'We were literally locked in... we were there for 14 hours,' said passenger Dimas Henriquez
American Airlines passengers left deserted in Bahamas airport amid weather diversion: ‘We were literally locked in’
Dimas Henriquez, a passenger on an American Airlines Flight 2421, discusses his experience being left overnight without accommodations as an illegal immigrant in the Bahamas in an interview with Fox News Digital.
An American Airlines flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Miami, Florida was detoured to the Bahamas earlier last week, stranding passengers at a local airport overnight without any accommodations, forcing travelers to sleep on the floor.
It also temporarily turned the passengers into illegal immigrants in the island nation. "They made a point to mention that, like, ‘y'all are illegal immigrants here right now, y'all don't have much say in anything.’ Even though we didn't choose to be there," Dimas Henriquez, passenger of American Airlines flight 2421, told Fox News Digital.
"We were literally locked in… It was not possible to leave," he continued. "I was awake the entire time, but people were on the floor covered in corners and stuff, like very spread out. It looked like we were camping indoors."
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Henriquez said there were roughly 90 passengers on the August 3 flight that was detoured due to weather. The traveler revealed that American Airlines staff told the travelers another crew from Miami was on their way to fly them out because the original flight crew was "full on time."
"The core of the whole issue with what happened to us was we were there for 14 hours. But what happened during the 14 hours was the really sucky part, where we only ever spoke to two people the entire time up until maybe like the very last hour, where everybody was awake and clocking into work and showing up to the airport," Henriquez told Fox News Digital.
When they reboarded to fly to Miami the next day, Henriquez claims an agent told him that he was booked on a connecting flight to Raleigh to replace his original itinerary, but upon arrival in Miami he went to get the boarding pass and was told "that plane is full, you were never on that." Henriquez was told there wasn’t another replacement flight available for two days.
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When asked about the possibility of a token to cover the waiting period for his connecting flight, Henriquez claims he was denied a voucher. The passenger and his friends self-funded a car rental to drive themselves home to North Carolina from Miami.
"Giving somebody a refund for just missing one leg of the trip isn't enough when you have them go through a lot of excruciating circumstances like that. I feel as if [it warranted] a courtesy to reach out and at least help me find an alternative way home," Henriquez continued. "They only gave me back $120, but that doesn't even cover what I needed to do to get myself home to solve my own problem that was caused by this."
Henriquez, a Columbia native who has lived in the U.S. since he was a 3-year-old toddler, says he was "a bit stressed" while in the Bahamas.
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Passengers on American Airlines Flight 2421 flying from Puerto Rico to Florida were left stranded overnight at a Bahamas airport as illegal immigrants without accommodations. (@griptape_/TikTok)
"I'm a green card holder. I'm not even supposed to be there. And I don't want anything coming up in my citizenship application or something saying, ‘Hey, were you somewhere you weren't supposed to?’ I've been very vocal about [how] I did not want to be there, "he said.
"I knew I could not be there, and it was never my intention to be there. I would have not been there on my own, I would not have left the country on my own accord," the traveler told Fox News Digital.
The North Carolina tenant went to Puerto Rico with a group of friends to avoid passport logistics or currency exchanges, a sentiment Henriquez said other passengers shared.
American Airlines planes are parked at Pittsburgh International Airport on March 31, 2020, in Imperial, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, file)
The passenger posted a video about being left stranded at the airport by American Airlines on TikTok, one on his personal account and another on the profile of a fellow passenger. The video garnered millions of views, with users flocking to the comments to clack their keyboards in disbelief of the situation flight 2421 passengers faced.
One user wrote, "Speak to an attorney asap," while another comment read, "American Airlines always does this," and another profile wrote, "forget a refund I want legal compensation!"
American Airlines has yet to respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Alba Cuebas-Fantauzzi is a freelance production assistant at Fox News Digital.
