An attempt to improve safety by Spirit Airlines turned into a primer on the wrong way to handle passengers in Florida last night, and continues to delay Spirit flights nationwide into this morning.
Spirit Airlines spent the night rechecking hundreds of its planes "as a precautionary measure" after a case of engine failure on a plane last week.
But the last-minute nature of the "proactive and voluntary check" left hundreds of passengers stranded overnight in Florida airports, with little information and noqwhere to sleep.
Flight delays on Spirit lasted into this morning on flights to Orlando, Los Angeles, New York, Las Vegas and Denver.
Spirit said the engine checks normally only take about minutes but acknowledged some flights are "experiencing significant delays."
Local news reported that passengers had to sleep on chairs and on the floor in Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
They eventually became so irate that the Broward County Sheriff’s Office was called in to restore order, and one passenger had to be physically removed from inside a plane.
