Allegiant Air will reimburse all passengers who were on a flight to Niagara Falls, N.Y. last week and were left stranded in Syracuse after the plane needed to be diverted.
In a wacky tale, Flight 894 left St. Petersburg, Fla., last Thursday heading for the upstate New York town famous for its watery tourist attraction.
The flight crew announced that the plane needed to be diverted to Syracuse due to a weather-related issue of low visibility. Passengers would then be bussed the final 162 miles from Syracuse back to the airport in Niagara Falls, according to WKBW 7Eyewitness News.
After four hours waiting, however, Allegiant then had another announcement.
You're on your own.
"There would be no buses. There would be no transportation and we are on our own," passenger Dave Mammoser told WKBW. "Those were her exact words, 'on your own'."
Allegiant Air released the following statement to the television station saying, "In the event of a weather-related diversion, we make every effort to secure ground transportation for our passengers to their destination. Unfortunately in this case, we found that all area transportation providers were completely booked and unavailable to accommodate us. This was likely due to a number of factors including charters booked for various weekend sports events and the evening time frame. This highly unusual occurrence resulted in our passengers having to obtain ground transportation on their own."
Adding insult to injury: Allegiant Air confirmed the plane was flown from Syracuse to Niagara Falls with no passengers. A spokesperson said at the time the plane took off, the airline was unsure if weather would allow the plane to land in Niagara Falls and it did not want to put the passengers through a second diversion if that happened.
Allegiant plans to reimburse all 153 passengers for the cost of their ticket.
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