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American Airlines Flight 893 was all set and ready for takeoff on Monday morning when a face mask dispute threw a wrench in things. According to reports, the Bahamas-bound flight was sitting on the runway at North Carolina’s Charlotte Douglas International Airport when a group of teen passengers allegedly refused to wear their face masks in accordance with COVID-19 safety guidelines. And, to make matters even worse, the group was said to have caused a disruption so loud, it didn’t just get them booted from the plane — it caused the entire flight to be delayed overnight.
… Roughly 47 students were on the flight — all of whom had all recently graduated from Winthrop High School, which is just outside of Boston. They were flying with a student travel company called Breakaway Beach, which had an adult travel representative with them on the flight. The details of what went down on the runway — as well as what was truly behind the flight delay — seems to differ, depending on who you ask.
… According to American Airlines, the students were told to put on their face coverings shortly before takeoff but refused to comply. Then they “became disruptive to other customers and refused to follow crew member instructions while onboard. Per procedure, the customers involved were asked to exit the aircraft.”
… Some of the students’ parents say their kids are being unfairly blamed. They also believe that the airline is misrepresenting the “noncompliance” issue, which was not something the entire group of 40-plus kids took part in. However, it sounds like fellow passengers on Flight 893 would beg to differ. A fellow passenger (Christina Randolph) said: “All they had to do was follow the rules. Put the mask on, sit there, no smart mouth comments. And they couldn’t do it.”
Watch more TV coverage of this story here: https://youtu.be/Ffrx1G75B-8