Plane Makes Emergency Landing Due to Lice Outbreak

An American Airlines flight made an emergency landing after a passenger spotted lice crawling on a woman’s hair. The Los Angeles to New York flight happened on June 15. The incident was then shared on TikTok by Ethan Judelson. In the video, Judelson explained that there was no explanation from the staff as to what happened. 

Emergency Landing

Judelson said that a woman rushed to the front of the plane when it made an emergency landing in Phoenix. “I look around, no one’s on the ground, no one’s freaking out. I’m like, it can’t be that dire,” he said in the video. 

Judelson continued, saying, “But we land, and as soon as we land, this woman across the aisle from me shoots up and rushes to the front of the plane.”

After the emergency landing, Judelson claimed that other passengers spotted lice on a woman’s hair. Judelson asked two women who saw what happened but they replied cryptically. He said,  “They were like, ‘Let’s just say it was in the best interest of everyone here that they did this. It’s for the safety of the plane’.”

Lice Outbreak

He also said that flight attendants promised that they would get more information as to what happened once they deplaned. 

However, Judelson claimed that the only update they received was that their flight to New York would be delayed by 12 hours. When they landed in Phoenix, they received an email with their hotel voucher. 

In a statement, American Airlines said, “On 15 June, American Airlines flight 2201 with service from Los Angeles (LAX) to New York (JFK) diverted to Phoenix (PHX) due to the medical needs of a customer.”

Judelson reiterated on People, the first to report on the incident, that he learned about the lice outbreak the following day through “word of mouth.” He said in his TikTok video, “Apparently those two girls, they saw bugs crawling out of the woman’s hair… and alerted the flight attendant.”