An American Airlines flight was diverted from its route between Los Angeles and New York to Phoenix after passengers reported lice in a woman’s hair.
The flight, which was originally scheduled to land in New York, made an unexpected emergency landing in Phoenix following the discovery. The situation was initially unclear to passengers, as American Airlines did not provide immediate information about the cause of the diversion.
TikTok user Ethan Judelson, who was on board, captured the incident in a video that has since garnered over 1.2 million views. In his video, Judelson described the confusion among passengers as they were left in the dark about the reason for the sudden landing.
He noted a woman causing a commotion as she hurriedly moved towards the front of the plane after landing, but initially, no other passengers seemed to take much notice.
“It just seemed like one of those people who, as soon as the seatbelt sign goes off, gets up and tries to be the first to their bag,” Judelson told People magazine, recalling his initial reaction. “So the girl next to me … we were both like, ‘Why is she so rushed to get off? We’re all getting off together; calm down.’”
Judelson also mentioned that two women he spoke with gave him “cryptic” responses about what had transpired.
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After the emergency landing, Judelson overheard discussions among fellow passengers, revealing that two individuals had seen lice crawling from a woman’s hair and reported it to the flight attendants. “Apparently, those two girls saw bugs crawling out of the woman’s hair and alerted the flight attendant,” Judelson said in his TikTok video.
American Airlines later confirmed that the flight was diverted due to a medical emergency.
