Passengers' Odyssey Due to Fire Threat on Miami-London-Naples Flight: Aircraft Diverts Route to Small Bermuda Airport
The Fire Brigade welcomed them and passengers were left to their own devices and were not allowed to leave the terminal. “abandoned in the middle of the Atlantic and without assistance forced to sleep on the floor and wait 25 hours before leaving again”. Inconveniences and insults on the return journey of a group of Neapolitans on the Miami – London – Naples route.
This is the story of Gennaro Esposito, one of the passengers on the flight of August 28, 2022 but arriving at its destination only on August 30, 2022: “30 hours of waiting, without assistance or information and the final insult of destroyed luggage upon arrival. We have instructed our lawyer Massimiliano Alosco of the Torre Annunziata Bar Association with a studio in Pompeii to reimburse us for the flight and to protect us from all damages suffered in violation of all passenger rights. A class action lawsuit will probably be started with other passengers on the flight who do not want their passenger rights to be trampled on”.
And the story continues: “As passengers on American Airlines flight AA38 from Miami to London on August 28, 2022, we complain about having been abandoned in the middle of the Atlantic after the flight was forced to make an emergency diversion to Bermuda. Never was a vacation more ruined for a group of Neapolitans and for all the passengers, all the benefits of a well-deserved rest debased by an unlikely story but one that seems common to many in these troubled days for air transport. How long will it continue?”.
Gennaro Esposito explains: “The plane was a Boeing 777-300 used for transoceanic flights, so presumably for us passengers it was safe in every component that should have been checked and rechecked. At a certain point after takeoff it made an emergency landing due to – the captain's words – overheating of the electronic systems??!!-. Here at the announcement, panic among all of us passengers!
Some passengers reported smelling smoke coming from the cockpit (as also reported in the article and the story of the English passengers)(https://tebigeek.com/i-passeggeri-sono-partiti-abbandonati-nel-mezzo-dellatlantico-mentre-il-volo-da-miami-a-londra-e-stato-dirottato-alle-bermuda/ )
All 303 of us passengers on American Airlines Boeing 777-300 flight AA38 instead landed at the small LF Wade International Airport in the British Overseas Territory – which typically sees only a handful of flights a day – where we were left to wait 25 hours before a flight would take us onwards to London.
Passengers were not allowed to leave the airport due to Bermuda's Covid-19 requirements. A situation similar to the movie the terminal with Tom Hanks. Locked up without assistance in the terminal. Without the possibility of leaving because it was forbidden but necessary given the danger that brought us to that distant and unexpected place in the Atlantic. We were abandoned to ourselves without assistance, much less food or information
When we landed in Bermuda there were firefighters following the plane on one side and it was reassuring on the other it made us understand that we had escaped danger in flight.
All of us passengers waited for over three hours until their first update on the situation and it only became clear that we would have to sleep at the airport around 5am local time, when the airport staff provided them with blankets and pillows from the plane itself to sleep on the floor.
It was only much later that the “very hungry” children were brought food, totally insufficient. Abandoned by the airline really… literally in the middle of the Atlantic. Forced to sleep on the floor.
Once in London after a 30 hour Odyssey we finally boarded a connecting flight to Naples Capodichino with British Airways but landed at Capodichino airport and here is the final insult, three bags checked in. All three destroyed. Completely. Is this how they treat paying passengers? Where are the rights of passengers? Is this normal? Shouldn't airliners flying over the ocean be safe and checked before the flight? Is it right that bags delivered intact arrive destroyed at the destination airport? The law is clear and we will enforce it through our lawyer: Massimiliano Alosco who assured us of our rights as passengers that we already believed were violated".
Article published on 2 September 2022 - 17:35
