Spirit Airlines A320 Gets Hit With Gunfire In Haiti
Intro
For those who are unaware, I am on a quest to be the youngest man to visit every country in the world. There are only a few places in the world that I deem dangerous, and Haiti is one of them. Well, to back up that claim, a Spirit Airlines flight operating from Fort Lauderdale to Port Au Prince got sprayed with bullets upon approach into the capital.
The Details
Spirit Airlines Airlines used to fly a couple of times per week from Fort Lauderdale to Port Au Prince. In addition, Jetblue and American have daily service to the capital. The other day, Monday, November 11th, Spirit Airlines was operating an ordinary flight from Fort Lauderdale to PAP (flight number 951) until the plane got sprayed with gunfire on approach.
Due to the plane taking fire, the decision was made to divert to Cibao Airport, the second-largest airport in the Dominican Republic. Obviously, airlines must take precautions when flying to PAP, and I wonder if they load enough fuel for both directions on this route. My guess would be yes.
Thankfully, no passengers were hurt onboard, and the plane made a safe landing 25 minutes later in Cibao. However, a flight attendant was grazed by a bullet...
My Thoughts
Firstly, I would like to commend the flight deck, passengers, and crew, as this must have been a very scary experience to go through. Thinking about it, I am not sure the last time we had an American airline hit with gunfire...
It's interesting to see that service to Port Au Prince has only been canceled for the next 7 days. I would have thought that after an incident like this, it would be a while before airlines resumed service. Heck, when airlines pulled the plug on Haiti last time, it took over a month for service to resume.
This brings me to my next point: I have to wonder about the economic point of this route. The routes to Port Au Prince must be doing well, or why else would they operate them? Is it to help citizens get out? There are a few smaller airlines that fly out of Haiti to other islands in the Caribbean, so it wouldn't technically isolate the country.
Final Thoughts
A Spirit Airlines A320neo came under gunfire when on final approach into Port Au Prince. After an ordinary flight from Fort Lauderdale, the jet was sprayed with bullets, causing one injury to a flight attendant. Presumably, the one seated near door 1L. One has to wonder if the risk is worth the reward on these routes.
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