GREENSBORO, N.C. — A Greensboro man said he was stuck in a foreign country for 14 hours without a passport.
Dimas Henriquez details the story on Tiktok, the video now viral has nearly two million likes.
He boarded an American Airlines flight on August 3rd from Puerto Rico to Miami, his final destination was to get to North Carolina but bad weather diverted the flight to the Bahamas.
American Airlines told us bad weather did not allow the flight to continue safely on its original flight plan.
"We went to Puerto Rico just for fun, because people in the group, including myself do not have passports. That was kind of the whole point because Puerto Rico you don’t have to have a passport to go."
Henriquez said he and about 100 people were stuck in the airport in Nassau, Bahamas. He said the group could not leave the terminal because they didn't have his passports.
"A diversion is one thing, a big layover is another, spending an entire two work shifts, basically in a different country with no water and no service is another thing," Henriquez recalled.
The hours-long flight delays carried over into the next day.
"We were super frustrated, pulling doors, pacing around and laying all over the floor. People made makeshift beds for their children, and people are still in wheelchairs," he said.
The wild ride didn't end when Henriquez got to Miami. The airline said the next flight to North Carolina wasn't available for days. Henriquez and his friends ended up driving 12 hours back to Greensboro.
"What bothers me the most is I paid for a ticket to get me home, I then had to pay more money to get myself home," he explained.
Henriquez said the airline refunded a portion of his ticket but it does not amount to the money he spent on the rental car, food, and emotional distress.
Full statement from American Airlines:
On August 3, American Airlines flight 2421 with service from Puerto Rico (SJU) to Miami (MIA) was impacted by severe weather and diverted to Nassau (NAS). The flight continued on to MIA once the weather conditions allowed us to safely do so. Operating safely is always our priority — especially in dynamic weather events — and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience experienced as a result of the weather.”
Additional Information
- Operating conditions prevented the flight from safely diverting to an alternate location on the U.S. mainland.
- After landing safely at NAS, the flight experienced further delays due to weather and FAA-mandated crew rest requirements. During that time, customers were provided food and water at NAS airport.