The passengers stuck on an Allegiant Air flight from Las Vegas to Phoenix for five hours on the tarmac tried to add a little levity to their situation by singing R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly.”
The flight would have only taken an hour and was supposed to leave Vegas at 11:00 a.m. Sunday, notes The New York Daily News. The plane didn’t take off until 3:45 p.m. and after the 121 passengers transferred to another plane and one of the passengers got sick. During the entire ordeal, they were without food and water. There was also no AC and temperatures in the cabin reached 110 degrees.
According to the YouTube user who uploaded the “I Believe I Can Fly” stunt, the passengers felt that they had to sing along in order to keep from starting a mutiny. The video starts with one passenger taking out a portable speaker to play the hit song and when R. Kelly reaches the chorus, everyone starts singing along.
While the video makes light of the situation, MyFoxPhoenix talked to Francine Gutierrez, who was not happy about her experience.
“40 minutes turned into an hour. It was extremely hot. We were asking flight attendants what was going on with the air. Everyone was really concerned about the heat,” she told the station. “One of the passengers started getting a bloody nose from the heat so she rushed to the bathroom. Followed by her was another passenger that was starting to vomit...A third passenger passed out in the middle of the aisle. Everyone was kind of frantic.”
She claims that in order to get water to one of the women who passed out, they had to look through her luggage. The airline offered vouchers worth $50 to $100 to the passengers and a spokesperson denied claims that water wasn’t handed out.
image: YouTube