Pepper spray delays AA flight to Trinidad

Luggage containing what Miami International Airport officials determined as pepper spray resulted in a three-hour delay of American Airlines flight 1819 bound for Trinidad on Friday. This occurred after a series of delays of American Airlines flights a few weeks ago in Piarco and JFK, New York which airline officials attributed to a chain effect of previously delayed flights and technical problems with the aircraft.

The carrier which was scheduled to leave Miami at 5.20 pm and arrive in Trinidad at 9.57 pm, did not depart until 8.30 pm and arrive in Trinidad 12.45 pm. Officials had informed that the illegal substance  leaked among the luggage and prevented loading. An hour later, the captain informed passengers that cargo personnel who had attempted to load luggage “into the belly of the plane” had to be rushed to a medical facility due to “burning eyes”. He said that no one was willing to continue the job of loading and an environmental crew had to be called out on the scene to remove the harmful toxins.

Sunday Newsday reporter Renee Olivel, who was a passenger on board AA1819, informed that it was not until an hour later that the captain had done a check of the reportedly “contaminated” cargo area himself and saw no problem. He had given the ground crew an ultimatum of eight minutes to give a definite plan of action or he would have to allow passengers to disembark. After some deliberating and apparent meeting of some 12 airport personnel under the wing of the plane, the captain announced that the ground crew had decided to resume loading. The more than 170 passengers on board, most of them returning TT nationals who grew restless and irate, were asked by the captain to “bear up” and not to take out their frustrations on members of the crew. He said: “This is not our fault, this is American Airlines fault and we’re doing the best we can.”