Haiti has been dealing with quite a bit of unrest in recent years, which has been challenging for airline operations, in terms of balancing the desire to serve markets with demand, while also factoring in safety. For the most part, US airlines have resumed service to Haiti as of earlier this year, though with new safety protocols.
Well, I suspect that’s about to change, given an incident that happened today…
Spirit Airlines jet hit by bullets on approach to Port-au-Prince
This incident happened today (Monday, November 11, 2024), and involves Spirit Airlines flight NK951, scheduled to fly from Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to Port-au-Prince (PAP). The 720-mile flight was operated by a one-year-old Airbus A320neo with the registration code N966NK.
The aircraft took off at 9:16AM local time, beginning the roughly two hour flight to Haiti. However, while on approach to Port-au-Prince, the plane was shot at, with several bullets piercing the fuselage, toward the rear part of the aircraft.
Video footage and pictures from inside the cabin show damage to some overhead bins. One flight attendant was also injured, and was reportedly grazed by a bullet. Gosh, when you’re on approach to an airport, you don’t expect that you’re going to be shot at, so that’s pretty terrifying.
The jet diverted to nearby Santiago de los Caballeros, in the Dominican Republic, which doesn’t have the same issues with unrest, and is only 124 miles away. The plane touched down there at around 11:32AM, 2hr16min after it departed Fort Lauderdale.
The airline is now arranging to have another aircraft sent to the Dominican Republic to pick up passengers, and fly them back to Fort Lauderdale. After all, you can’t just strand people in a foreign country.
Airlines are suspending flights to Port-au-Prince
As you’d expect, the US airlines that do fly to Port-au-Prince have made the decision to suspend flights for the time being. A JetBlue flight was enroute to Port-au-Prince when the incident happened, and the decision was made to return to Fort Lauderdale.
Airlines like American, JetBlue, and Spirit, have all canceled their Port-au-Prince flights for the coming days. While these cancelations are just for a few days for the time being, I wouldn’t be surprised to see these cancelations extended much longer than that.
Bottom line
A Spirit Airlines Airbus A320neo was shot at while on approach to Port-au-Prince this morning. The bullets passed through the fuselage and into the cabin, causing a minor injury to one of the flight attendants. The good news is at least that the injuries weren’t more serious.
Many airlines are now suspending service to Port-au-Prince, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that extended for quite some time…
What do you make of this Spirit Airlines incident in Port-au-Prince?
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