A Delta passenger has taken to social media to share a bizarre incident that happened when a flight diverted due to bad weather. I’m writing about this because I find the situation to be so bizarre, especially given how common weather diversions are, and I’m curious what the real story is.
Delta flight diverts to Fort Myers to refuel, strands passengers
A 23-year-old “Digital Asset Educator” named Randi Hipper, who claims to appear on Fox News and Newsmax, was flying Delta from Hong Kong (HKG) to Los Angeles (LAX) to Tampa (TPA), as she was returning from a crypto conference in Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong to Los Angeles flight operated as expected, while the Los Angeles to Tampa flight had to divert to Fort Myers (RSW), due to bad weather in Tampa. This is of course common on summer afternoons and evenings in Florida, given how frequently we see thunderstorms (I love how she describes this as “you guys had the plane that ran out of gas,” lol).
The passenger claims that upon arriving in Fort Myers, the flight attendant told passengers to proceed to baggage claim carousel seven to collect their bags. She was one of the first off the plane, but then when she was out of the sterile area, “all of a sudden half the plane stayed back, and now they’re departing without [her], and with [her] bag.” And now she’s “stuck at Fort Myers, [she] cannot get in, TSA is closed, and [she’s] stranded here, with no hotel, no nothing, and [she’s] hours away from Tampa.”
As you’d expect, some people questioned her story, and below are some of her responses…
My theory on what went wrong with this Delta diversion
I find this to be very strange. On the one hand, I believe that she heard she was supposed to go to baggage claim carousel seven. On the other hand, while she claims others were stranded as well, I only see her in the video, and I’m curious how she can authoritatively claim that once she was out of the sterile area, “all of a sudden half the plane stayed back.” Was it really “all of a sudden,” or did they just interpret instructions differently than her?
I did a bit of digging, as much as I can without actually having been there…
To cover the basics of this flight, this was on Saturday, August 29, 2026, and involves Delta flight DL749. The flight was supposed to depart Los Angeles at 10:26AM and arrive in Tampa at 6:20PM. It ended up landing in Fort Myers at 7:09PM, and then took off again at 9:14PM, operating the 22-minute flight to Tampa, where it landed at 9:36PM.
I think based on the above video, you’d assume this traveler was stranded on Christmas Island at 1AM, so I think it’s important to remember that this all happened a little after 7PM. Also keep in mind that Fort Myers is a roughly two-hour drive from Tampa.
Of course renting a car or taking an expensive Uber is inconvenient, but this isn’t quite an “I’m stranded in the middle of nowhere with no options” situation. Also, on social media she talks about how she’s going to make everyone a crypto millionaire, so I assume she must herself be very well off, and that expense would be nothing to her… right? 😉
But real talk, typically if you have a weather diversion, either everyone stays on the plane, or the airline asks you to just go into the gate area and wait there for updates. I checked, and it doesn’t appear that this flight used any gate number seven at the airport, in case that was the confusion.
So was Delta initially thinking the flight was going to be canceled, and that’s why people were sent to baggage claim, only for that plan to change within minutes? That seems highly unlikely, but it’s a theory. That brings me to my theory which seems most likely.
There was a scheduled Delta flight from Atlanta (ATL) that arrived in Fort Myers at almost exactly the same time as this diverted flight. Did the gate agent who boarded the plane to welcome passengers accidentally get the flight wrong, and was giving the baggage claim information for the Atlanta flight, without realizing this was a diverted flight?
That would also explain how a vast majority of other passengers would’ve not had the issue this traveler did. It sounds like she was in first class and was among the first off the plane, so maybe the gate agent made that announcement, and then the flight attendant immediately corrected the gate agent. This shouldn’t happen in the first place (when the door opens, the gate agent and flight attendant are supposed to confirm the flight), but it seems like the best theory.
When it comes to security being closed, it appears that each concourse in Fort Myers has a separate security checkpoint. The only scheduled late night flight was on JetBlue, and that was out of a different concourse. So I can understand how once she left security, there was no way to get back airside.
So I wouldn’t be surprised if Delta was at fault here, and if someone really did say what she heard. If that’s the case, they should be on the hook for making her whole, and reimbursing any expenses incurred.
At the same time, this is where it pays to be an experienced traveler (which of course is no one’s obligation, but it helps). If you’re on a flight that diverted and they send you to baggage claim, you should follow up and ask questions, because that suggests the flight is just canceled, and it doesn’t sound like that’s what she was otherwise anticipating.
Bottom line
A Delta flight from Los Angeles to Tampa diverted to Fort Myers due to bad weather at the destination, which isn’t unusual. What’s strange is that one of the passengers claims that she was told to go to a specific baggage claim belt. Once there, she found out that wasn’t actually correct, and there was no way to get back through security, to catch the flight, leaving the traveler stranded.
This is a bizarre incident, and if this traveler was in fact told to go to baggage claim carousel seven, my best guess is that the gate agent meeting the flight gave the wrong information with the announcement after the door closed, and that was quickly corrected. However, it sounds like this traveler was one of the first off the plane and then darted to baggage claim, which seems ill-advised in the first place.
What do you make of this strange Delta diversion incident?
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