American Airlines plane turns around mid-flight over mask row

An American Airlines plane bound for London from Miami has had to turn around because a passenger refused to wear a face mask, the airline has said.

American Airlines Flight AAL38 with 129 passengers on board returned to Miami where it was met by police, it said.

She has been placed on a list of people barred from flying with American Airlines, pending further investigation, the airline said.

"American Airlines flight 38 with service from Miami (MIA) to London returned to MIA due to a disruptive customer refusing to comply with the federal mask requirement," the airline said.

"Everyone was shocked," one passenger told CBS station WFOR-TV after getting off the Wednesday flight.

"They wouldn't really say anything, and I don't believe they told the flight attendants anything either because they said all they could say was there was an extreme incident with a passenger and they had to turn around," she told the station.

- 151 reports of unruly passengers.

Unruly Passenger Rate as of 1/9/22: 4.4 incidents per 10K flightshttps://t.co/ISiblzAzGi #FlySmart pic.twitter.com/UbF5UIqdcp.