(NBC News) Pandemonium erupted Monday night inside the terminal at Florida’s Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after Spirit Airlines canceled nine flights, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded.
“People were getting arrested left and right, nowhere to sit, nowhere to stand,” said passenger Jennifer Glann.
The cancellations come amid labor negotiations between the pilot’s union and Spirit Airlines.
Spirit blamed the grounded flights on pilots refusing to pick up unassigned trips, even filing a lawsuit against the union claiming that “the pilots are engaged in this illegal slowdown in order to bring pressure on Spirit during current negotiations//Cancelled flights due to pilot unavailability have impacted over 20,000 passengers since May 1.”
The union denies those allegations, and released a statement reading “The pilots are not engaged in a job action. Rather they are continuing to do everything possible to help restore the company’s operations, which have experienced significant problems over the past several days.”
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