06 March 2023 , 18:01
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Passengers on a flight said they suffered a nine-hour ordeal after their plane hit severe turbulence and was diverted before they were left at a closed airport with no information.
Southwest Airlines flight 3094 was delayed by 40 minutes before taking off around 7.40pm local time (12.40am GMT) from Baltimore, Maryland, and was bound for Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, US.
But as the plane was nearing Raleigh, it hit severe turbulence and the wings were "flapping", according to passengers.
Some passengers experienced motion sickness and panic attacks during turbulence, with three passengers vomiting and one passing out.
One passenger, Nicholas Reed, reported that the plane started shaking "like crazy" while landing in Raleigh, and they were then informed 15 minutes later that they would instead be diverted to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
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Krys Spence and her partner Nicholas Reed said they were stranded for nearly four hours (WNCN)He told Fox 8: "It was quite a horrifying experience. We go to land in Raleigh and the plane starts shaking like crazy.
"Two people were vomiting pretty close to us. But everyone was pretty silent. I guess they were just in suspense like ‘this could be it’."
At the last moment, the plane was diverted to Myrtle Beach International Airport due to bad weather conditions at Raleigh-Durham, the airline said later in a statement.
After the plane landed in Myrtle Beach, the passengers were held on the plane for two hours.
Then, the passengers were then taken to the closed Myrtle Beach airport, where they spent nearly four hours without access to food or drinks.
One passenger reported that they were not given their luggage, and some passengers had to resort to finding a bar and pouring themselves drinks because there was no security.
Mr Reed's girlfriend, Krys Spence, who was travelling together, said that they were informed that another plane was on its way to Myrtle Beach to take them to Raleigh, but the captain and flight attendants all left, leaving them stranded.
Eventually, another plane was brought in and took them to Raleigh, but the whole ordeal took nine hours, and Southwest did not offer any compensation, they said.
The Southwest Airlines flight was diverted to Myrtle Beach (AFP/Getty Images)Mr Reed also mentioned that the passengers ultimately were flown to Raleigh on an empty plane from Baltimore and that Southwest Airlines did not offer them meal vouchers or anything to compensate for the inconvenience.
He said: "When we got back here to Raleigh, 4am, so, it was a really terrible experience. They didn’t offer us meal vouchers or anything. I was like, we fly Southwest all the time."
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Southwest Airlines said in a statement: "We made the decision to safely divert Southwest flight 3094 (BWI – RDU) to MYR due to weather conditions at RDU.
"We brought in another crew and aircraft to transport the passengers to their final destination as soon as we were able to safely do so.
"We apologise for the inconvenience and encourage passengers to reach out to our customer relations team with any concerns."