Hundreds of Virgin Atlantic passengers were stuck at Orlando International Airport for more than five hours Saturday night and told they could be arrested if they left without their bags, passengers say.
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Carol Wick, who owns an international consulting firm, had been traveling with her husband for a two-week vacation in Croatia and was returning home to Orlando on a Virgin Atlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport. After several delays and a canceled flight, Wick said she was ready to get home once she landed in Orlando. After arriving at OIA around 7 p.m., Wick said officials told passengers their bags would be slightly delayed due to weather.
“I travel all the time for work and I have never seen anything like this,” Wick said. “It was just the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced in my whole life and there’s no explanation.”
Midnight passed. She and more than 800 passengers who were on three other Virgin Atlantic flights from Europe still did not have their bags.
“There’s no place to sit, there’s babies, there’s elderly people and we’re all laying, sitting on the ground trying to find something to lean on,” Wick said. “They were holding our bags hostage and no one ever gave us an explanation.”
Toward the end, one person collapsed and emergency responders arrived on scene, Wick said.
Officials from the airport and the airline told passengers they could not leave without their bags or risk being arrested, Wick said. With the current political climate with immigration, Wick said she was worried about the families arriving from the European destinations.
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“I can’t even imagine somebody who just arrived in the United States in the environment we have right now being threatened if you leave your baggage,” Wick said. “I mean what happens if you did walk out without your bags …would you end up in a nice detention center?”
Wick detailed the incident in several Facebook posts Saturday night that got the attention of OIA officials.
In the comment section of her post, someone from the airport responded, apologized for the inconvenience and discomfort — and asked her to fill out a form for feedback.
“We understand how frustrating and disruptive unexpected weather conditions can be and we also recognize how challenging it can feel when there are no eateries available in the customs area,” the airport official said in the post. “We sincerely regret that these circumstances affected your plans and overall experience.”
Wick said Virgin Atlantic sent an email to passengers saying any snacks purchased would be reimbursed.
Neither Virgin Atlantic nor Orlando International Airport responded to requests for comment about the incident by the Orlando Sentinel on Sunday.
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