American Airlines flight makes emergency landing; passengers say they saw ‘bugs crawling out of woman’s hair’

Flight delays and cancelations are often caused by weather and mechanical issues and as I’m sure most passengers will agree, it’s frustrating when your flight doesn’t go as planned. Medical emergencies are another reason some flights are disrupted but those of course are an entirely different situation and I think most people would agree that being diverted or making an emergency landing for a medical reason is understandable and worth the inconvenience to help the passenger in need.

According to the Washington Post, “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates medical emergencies occur on about one of every 604 flights, with 10 percent diverted for severe cases such as cardiac arrest.”

Cardiac arrest on an airplane is a terrifying situation to contemplate and without question warrants an emergency landing. But what about … something not so serious? Like … lice?

Traveler Ethan Judelson took to TikTok to share his experience flying on a recent American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York when his flight was diverted to Phoenix because a passenger had lice.

Here’s the story in his own words:

“There was a woman on my flight with such bad lice that we had to do an emergency landing. Uh, we’re flying LA to New York, and like, an hour into the flight, they make an announcement, but I can’t hear it ‘cause I have my headphones on. And I see on the map that we turned around. So I tap the guy next to me, I’m like, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ He’s like, ‘Oh, it’s a medical emergency. We have to land in Phoenix.’ And I was like, ‘Okay.’ I look around, no one’s on the ground, no one’s freaking out. I’m like, ‘It can’t be that dire.’
“But we land, and then as soon as we land, this woman across the aisle from me shoots up and rushes to the front of the plane. And the girl next to me and I were laughing. We’re like, ‘Where does she think she’s going?’ But she gets off, she vanishes before anyone else has even stood up. I’m like, ‘Okay.’ They’re like, ‘Okay, they’ll let you know what’s going on at the gate.’

“At the gate, they don’t tell us anything. They’re like, ‘You guys are gonna be on another flight in, like, 12 hours.’ And they don’t tell us what happened. But clearly there’s these two girls and they know something. And so we’re kind of asking them, ‘What’s going on?’ And they’re like, ‘Let’s just say it’s in the best interest of everyone here that they did this, like, it’s for the safety of the plane.’ We’re all like, ‘Why are you being cryptic? Just tell us what happened.’ But they don’t.

“So we spend our 12 hours at the airport, we come back the next morning, and then I’m buying snacks with the $12 that American Airlines gave me, and in front of me in line is a girl who’s sitting next to me, and I hear her talking to her friend, and she says, blah, blah, blah, lice. And I tap her. I’m like, ‘Excuse me, lice?’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah.’ Apparently, those two girls, they saw bugs crawling out of the woman’s hair. The woman shot up earlier, right when we landed. They saw bugs crawling out of her hair and alerted the flight attendant, and they had to ground the plane.”

“So, the next day, we’re boarding the plane, and the two girls who were sitting next to this woman, there are assigned to the same seats that they were in the day prior. And they start bawling. They’re like, ‘We’re not sitting in these seats. Like, there were bugs crawling out of this woman’s hair.’ And I don’t know how they managed, but they just sat someone else in those seats. Those girls were powerful. I do not think that these people who sat in those seats knew what was going on. But disgusting. I’ve been itching all day. Oh, my god. But I got $12, and I got a little protein bar. So, who’s the real winner? It’s me. I got to go to Phoenix.”

Watch the full video here:

@ethanforyou Replying to @Ana kyriakos ♬ original sound – Ethan Judelson

The video, which, at the time of this publication, has been viewed 1.2 million times, garnered a lot of attention and racked up plenty of comments. Here are some:

@Mae: That’s an insane reason to emergency land 😭😭

@Michelle Walsh: I work at a school and kids don’t even get sent home for lice anymore.

@user3663990741055: my ocd is screaming right now. i can barely travel without crippling fear of bed bugs.. new fear unlocked

@trishasmith972: $12 is not enough for a 12 hour delay. But I’d be going and buying live shampoo, throwing all my clothes and luggage in HOT HOT WATER

Besides the horror of the lice, many commenters also questioned American Airlines giving passengers just $12 for the 12-hour delay.

@Leatha: Don’t you have to get more than $12 due to a delay of more than 3 hours domestic with the new travel regulations passed? You should look into it!!

To which Ethan replied: Oh dw I’ll be calling for a refund plus some

Back in April, our American Airlines plane to Hawaii was canceled twice in one day after the pilot refused the aircraft he’d been given. American Airlines didn’t acknowledge the disruption and didn’t compensate passengers until my husband (who is AA Executive Platinum) emailed them and requested compensation. The airline deposited 10,000 miles into his account and 7,500 miles into my account and our two kids’ account.

Here’s more about the government’s final rule requiring automatic refunds of airline tickets and ancillary service fees when flights are canceled or significantly delayed.

Do you think that lice on an airplane warrants an emergency landing?

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