After a Spirit flight nearly made an emergency landing in the ocean, the budget airline offered passengers a $50 voucher - in a move that one customer described as a "slap in the face."
The Florida-bound Flight NK270 departed from Montego Bay, in Jamaica, on Saturday afternoon. Shortly after takeoff, passengers were warned to put on their life jackets and prepare to land at sea, "following a suspected mechanical issue," the airline told CBS News.
"We were told the aircraft lost pressure," a passenger told the Jamaican outlet the Gleaner.
Despite concerns about a water landing, the plane safely returned to the Jamaican airport, where passengers boarded a second plane.
Passenger Andrene Gordon described the incident as a "near-death experience" in an interview with the Gleaner.
"We were there for like 25 minutes but the plane never ascended high. We never knew we would actually make it to the ground because all we were seeing was literal water," she said.
"The flight attendants, I know they are trained, but they are human. They got scared, everybody was scared."
Gordon added that she was unsure if she would ever fly again after the experience, recounting that at one point she turned to her boyfriend and said "this is it."
The passenger added that she was enraged by the compensation customers received from Spirit following the incident.
"After that near-death experience and emotional distress, Spirit wants to offer US$50 credit to use by August of this year," she said. "I feel like that is a slap in the face because they put us through such a traumatic experience with an incompetent crew. That is just so unacceptable."
