Passengers on board a JetBlue flight from the Dominican Republic to Boston (USA) reported that the plane had to make an emergency diversion due to the 35-degree heat inside the plane.
Due to an alleged problem with the air conditioning system, JetBlue Flight 1924, scheduled for takeoff on Wednesday afternoon, was delayed by more than three hours.
In posts posted on social media, passengers said the airline decided to keep the flight going, and told them that the air conditioning should work once the plane was in the air.
However, after departure, the interior of the aircraft was not cooled and the pilots of the Airbus A321 decided to return to Santiago de los Caballeros Airport in the Dominican Republic.
One passenger wrote on Twitter that the flight had been on the ground for more than two hours, waiting to take off, due to an air conditioning problem. “There were a lot of old people on board. They didn’t give us water and didn’t let us use the toilets,” he wrote.
Another passenger, mental health counselor Julio Tavarez, confirmed on Twitter that the flight was delayed because the air conditioner was not working. “We got on the plane and it was very hot. They told us that as soon as we started flying, the AC would work. The AC didn’t turn on, which sent us back to Santiago,” he said in one of the messages. .
The cabin temperature reached 35 degrees Celsius and the passengers started to feel sick. Some fainted and had to be taken to the hospital, according to JetBlue Flight Attendants Association President Tysha Nicole Best, on Twitter.
She wondered, “People get left, they get sent to the hospital when the flight had to come back. What do we do about planes that keep taking off because it’s too hot?”
In a statement, a JetBlue spokesperson confirmed to PYOK that the on-board climate control system was not working properly and apologized for the inconvenience.
