An American Airlines flight from Miami to New York was diverted to Jacksonville on Sunday after a woman passenger discharged pepper spray in the cabin.
The woman claims that she had mistaken her pepper spray canister for hand sanitizer or lotion. A Reddit user who said he was on the flight reported that passengers began to cough and complain that their vision was impaired.
After an emergency landing in Jacksonville, police escorted the woman, her husband, and her teenaged son from the plane.
Paramedics treated passengers affected by the pepper spray while police gathered eyewitness accounts. The passengers were subject to a nearly four-hour delay. They resumed their journey to New York on a new plane.
Was the discharging an accident, as the woman claims? Maybe not.
From The Messenger:
Other commenters on the post who claimed they were aboard the plane said the pepper spray was no accident — and that the family who'd deployed the spray had been aiming for a different family across the aisle.
According to Reddit posts, some users said they had no idea why they were suddenly having trouble breathing, and feared that there was a catastrophic malfunction on the plane.
