American Airlines passengers stuck in the Bahamas without passports

After their flight was canceled due to weather on Saturday, all of the passengers, most of whom did not have passports, were stranded for 14 hours at Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau, Bahamas, unable to leave their gate to get food or water, according to Henriquez.

In a statement sent to Business Insider, an American Airlines spokesperson said operating conditions prevented the plane from landing in the United States.

“Safe operations are always our top priority – especially in dynamic weather conditions – and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience they have experienced due to the weather,” the spokesman said.

Without passports, passengers could not leave the airport

At first, Henriquez’s vacation went according to plan.

His group of friends had an incredible trip through Puerto Rico. On Saturday, the day of departure, their flight from Puerto Rico to Miami was scheduled to depart on time, as was their connecting flight from Miami to Charlotte, North Carolina.

If everything had gone smoothly, Henriquez and his friends would have been home around midnight.

The group boarded their flight to Miami at 5:30 p.m., and after about an hour in the air, Henriquez noticed the plane circling.

Shortly afterwards, the pilot announced that the diversion to the Bahamas had to be made due to the weather conditions. According to the flight tracker Flight Aware, the plane landed at Nassau airport at 8:44 p.m.

Henriquez described the next 14 hours as “mentally and physically exhausting.”

He told BI the group sat on the plane for several hours. When they finally got off, it was an all-or-nothing situation, Henriquez said. Because most people did not have passports, Bahamian border control did not let anyone leave the airport gate. Representatives from Bahamian Immigration and Lynden Pindling International Airport did not respond to requests for comment.

Henriquez, meanwhile, said the airport’s only restaurants were outside the customs area, to which the group did not have access.

“We’re basically just in a glass box,” he said. “It’s like a zoo.”

Shortly afterward, the flight crew exceeded their work hours, meaning the flight attendants and pilots on board had reached the maximum amount of time they could work per day. Henriquez said gate agents told them another flight would arrive in two hours with a crew that could take them to Miami. But two hours passed and the crew never showed up.

To add to the confusion, Henriquez said many passengers did not speak English, so he acted as the main translator, relaying news in Spanish over the loudspeaker.

He said the vicious cycle of being told a flight crew was on the way – and then never arriving – continues.

Henriquez also said he and others had no cell reception to contact the airline, reach embassies and consulates or get further information on the situation.

“We just wait. I try to make jokes. I translate,” Henriquez told BI. “After about four hours, people start to get a little frustrated.”

Henriquez said the passengers, including children, the elderly and some dogs, were not given water or food for hours.

An American Airlines spokesperson told BI that food and water were provided to passengers.

Henriquez said it took seven hours to get water and the only food they received the next morning were Biscoff cookies and doughnuts.

In addition, there was only one toilet for the entire group and some passengers had left medication on board. Henriquez said gate staff did not allow passengers to collect their belongings from the plane, which remained on the tarmac for the duration of the delay.

“The worst part was being in the Bahamas for 14 hours eating Biscoff cookies and Diet Coke,” he said. “If there was food at the airport, I didn’t know because they wouldn’t let us go there.”

The next morning, the passengers regained hope when a new flight crew finally arrived. At 10:15 a.m., the passengers boarded the same plane again and arrived in Miami an hour later on Sunday.

Henriquez and his friends drove 12 hours home to North Carolina

For many passengers, including Henriquez, this was not the end as they missed their connecting flight.

Before boarding, a gate agent helped Henriquez and his friends get a new connecting flight to North Carolina. However, when they landed in Miami, he said the flight disappeared from their American Airlines accounts, and an airline representative at the Miami airport told him there was no record of him being on the flight.

The next available flight was not until Tuesday – more than 48 hours later – and Henriquez said the airline would not issue them hotel vouchers.

Henriquez said he couldn’t miss work any longer and didn’t want to spend his own money on two nights in a hotel, so his group decided to book a rental car for $115.

“My first moment of relief was when we got the rental car in Miami that American Airlines wouldn’t take,” said Henriquez. “The situation was now in our hands.”

They drove for the next 12 hours to Greensboro, North Carolina. Henriquez said he finally arrived home at 8 a.m. Monday – 32 hours later than originally planned.

Now that Henriquez is back home, he is trying to figure out how to get a refund. He said a friend’s refund request was denied through the American Airlines portal.

“At the end of the trip, my friends and I were awake for a total of 44 hours,” he said. “I received no refund or apology from American Airlines.”