A flight returned to Miami with an emergency. For travelers, the saga just began

An emergency two-bounce landing at Miami International Airport, with fire trucks waiting on the runway, turned out to be just the start of a two-day travel nightmare for Andy and Fran Katz.

After the hard landing, the Deerfield Beach couple returned to the same boarding area where they waited earlier Friday evening. American Airlines told passengers they’d get another plane from the maintenance hangar for their scheduled flight to Paris.

Just past 9 p.m., the couple boarded that plane.

Then they received a series of six messages on their phones over the next four hours.

Into predawn Saturday, computer-generated emails kept pushing back their departure time. But “no reason for the delays” was provided by the texts or by staff on board, Andy Katz said.

Around 1 a.m., the captain came on the PA system to tell passengers the airplane still wasn’t ready for takeoff.

There was a problem with the computer navigation system.

And the crew had timed out, reaching the maximum number of hours they could legally work.

Passengers were finally let off the flight. They had still not received any food on the plane and got just one small bottle of water, the couple recounted.

Next stop: a Miami hotel

After walking to several counters at MIA, the Katzes received a hotel voucher. Andy said they had to fight to get it because one American Airlines employee thought they weren’t eligible because they lived in Broward County. A supervisor intervened. The couple also each got meal vouchers.

They checked into the hotel, Element Miami International Airport, around 2 a.m.

Then they got seven more emails from American Airlines. “At this point, the computer is just spitting out stuff,” Andy Katz recounted.

They weren’t given much time to rest. First, they had to call places in Europe where they’d made reservations to inform them of their later arrival.

And Element was enforcing a strict noon checkout. The hotel was packed with guests in town for Ultra, the electronic music festival in downtown Miami.

“Our team is proactively reaching out to customers to apologize for their experience and the inconvenience caused by a mechanical issue,” Amanda Maldonado, an American Airlines spokesperson, wrote in a statement to the Miami Herald. “At American Airlines, the safety of our customers is at the center of every decision we make. We never want to disrupt our customers’ travel plans and we regret that we did not meet the level of service they expect when they fly with us.”

Maldonado said American has already provided miles to travelers as a “goodwill gesture.”

Paris was beckoning

Andy and Fran Katz, both 73, hoped to make a getaway from South Florida for a 14-day vacation to Paris. The couple had booked nice hotels and a river cruise. Andy is a retired scientist and Fran was a special education teacher. She’s not short on patience.

Initially, things seemed on track when American Airlines Flight 62 departed from MIA on time on a busy Friday evening for Charles de Gaulle Airport. The 787-800 left at 7:30 p.m.

About 30 minutes after flying over the Atlantic Ocean but still circling at about 4,000 feet, the captain informed passengers that the landing gear door wouldn’t close after take-off.

The plane had to return to MIA. After initially touching down, it bounced up once and then returned to the ground, three passengers told the Miami Herald. No one was hurt.

“Everyone was fine,” Andy Katz said. “The captain was very professional in talking to us; was very calm” during the entire descent.

Passengers applauded. “We were greatly relieved,” he said.

That was just the start of the travel saga.

More waiting at the Miami airport

A day later, the Katzes were back at MIA. It was Saturday, just past noon.

They ate lunch at the airport, a turkey BLT and orange juice for Andy and a chicken sandwich and pineapple juice for Fran.

They stayed away from the airport bar, though the urge to drink was strong. They each got two meal vouchers, but they didn’t even cover the cost of one meal. A review of the menu online indicates what the Katzes ordered with a 20% tip and 6% sales tax would have come out to slightly over $49. American had given the couple $24 for a meal.

The couple’s flight, their third attempt at boarding, was scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

There was one more delay, this time for a crew member to arrive.

“Everyone clapped when that person showed up,” Katz recalled. “People were trying to be decent.”

They boarded. But problems continued.

More troubles on the American Airlines plane

Almost an hour after they got back on the plane, an announcement came over the speakers, he recounted: “We’re sorry but we cannot get our navigation computer to work.”

Alejandra Kalik, another passenger on board, said they realized they were on the same airplane they had left hours before with the computer problem. “Maintenance was called again,” said the 59 year-old physician who lives in Tampa.

Andy Katz said, “It baffles me how they bring out a plane without being fully checked and have people board it, for a cross-ocean flight,” Katz said. “And they really didn’t have information for us.”

Another passenger said a flight attendant told him maintenance personnel were on board trying to fix “the same issue as last evening’s issue with the second airplane.”

The Federal Aviation Administration said that “American Airlines Flight 62 returned safely to Miami International Airport around 8:55 p.m. local time on Friday, March 28, after the crew reported a landing gear issue. ... The FAA will investigate.” But that was the agency’s only report for the March 28-29 flight, said FAA spokesperson Rick Breitenfeldt.

Back at the gate, a couple more hours passed, and with the plane still on the tarmac, passengers were getting anxious.

Meanwhile, the airline phone messages kept coming.

Twenty-four hours past the scheduled original departure, they weren’t allowed to change their plans or claim their luggage.

“We were told if we left the plane, we wouldn’t have access to our bags,” Katz said.

Finally, a little before 10 p.m. Saturday, that changed. They were let off the plane, told they could re-book and could get their baggage. But they were also told if they did so, they would lose the chance to reclaim their seat should the plane eventually take off.

Kalik, the Tampa physician, went to grab a bite and stretch her legs.

“I came back to the gate to find chaos and people screaming at gate agents,” she said. “Gate agents were not giving any information as to whether the flight was going to go or get canceled.” About 10 Miami-Dade sheriff’s deputies showed up.

Throughout the travel ordeal, “there were several instances during this time that I was concerned for my personal safety.” she said. “The biggest problem was the lack of communication by American gate agents and lack of preparation and oversight by American maintenance.”

The Katzes decided they’d had enough. “This has been exhausting,” Andy and Fran said.

They walked.

“At that point, we had lost faith in American’s safety procedures,” he said.

Their plane was in Terminal E, so they had to walk to Terminal D to see an agent to help get a refund and then get their luggage. Putting in the requests took another hour.

They requested their baggage be delivered to their house and took an Uber home.

Their belongings didn’t arrive until Tuesday, April 1, after 3 p.m, nearly 72 hours after they left MIA. They may have taken a trip of their own.

After midnight Saturday, the flight finally took off for Paris, without them.

Kalik, who stayed on the flight and eventually reached France’s capital, said before departing that “the captain announced that we would go without the computer being fixed as he could deal with the issue manually.”

This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 3:19 PM.