Spirit flight to Haiti hit by gunfire, airlines suspend flights to the country

Who knew that another problem we had to worry about was gunfire in the air?

Multiple airlines have suspended flights to Haiti after gunfire Spirit Airlines flight to the island on Monday, injuring one crew member.

Spirit Airlines Flight 951 attempted to land in Port-au-Prince from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but was diverted to the neighboring Dominican Republic, where it landed safely at Santiago Airport, Spirit Airlines confirmed in a statement, according to multiple news sources, under which BBC news And NBC News.

A flight attendant was slightly injured, but no passengers were injured in the attack. The company added that an inspection of the aircraft revealed damage consistent with gunfire.

“One flight attendant on board reported minor injuries and is being assessed by medical personnel,” the statement said. “No guest injuries were reported.”

The flight was scheduled to land at Toussaint Louverture International Airport when it was hit.

Unverified video which was shared with X, formerly known as Twitter, captured several bullet holes on the inside of the plane, where the crew sat during takeoff and landing.

According to data from FlightRadar24, the plane came within 170 meters of the runway before aborting the landing and diverting to the Dominican Republic.

As of now, Spirit is suspending its services to Haiti pending an “assessment” of the incident and the aircraft is being taken out of service for the time being. A return flight will be arranged for crew members and passengers diverted to the Dominican Republic.

This is the second incident in three weeks involving a plane flying over Haiti’s capital, as the State Department warned of “gang-related attempts” to stop travel to the Caribbean country and warned Americans not to travel there.

Also on Monday, a post-flight inspection of the exterior of a JetBlue plane used for a trip from Port-au-Prince to New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport found evidence that it had been struck by gunfire, JetBlue said in a statement.

“No issues were initially reported by the operations crew,” JetBlue said.

The airline launched an investigation and decided to suspend its flights to and from Haiti until at least December 2, blaming “ongoing civil unrest” for the suspension of travel.

American Airlines said in a statement that it was also suspending its flights from Miami to Port-au-Prince.

“We will continue to monitor the situation with safety and security top of mind and will adjust our operations as necessary,” the company said.