Vern Evans
As visitors approached Fantasy Island, Tattoo at least alerted the welcoming committee with honest enthusiasm and a sense of the excitement to come. Maybe that’s simply what grounded gunman in Haiti attempted to do to passengers on a Spirit Airlines flight from Florida when they fired upon the approaching airliner as well. They simply wanted to get a jump on filling passengers with the sense of danger, violence and chaos that has become part of daily life for many Haitians. After years of corrupt leaders, political disruptions, natural disasters and the assassination of a president left warring factions attempting to gain control of the poor island nation, Haiti has really become Nightmare Island.
In the shooting of the Spirit Airlines plane on Monday, Nov. 11, one attendant received minor injuries from debris, the fuselage of the plane was punctured from bullets near an exit door and passing through an overhead baggage compartment and the plane was forced to divert to the neighboring Dominican Republic.
The Airbus A320, Spirit Airlines Flight 951 departed from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport with 48 passengers on board and was circling Port-au-Prince at around 550 feet when it apparently took the gunfire and began to climb, CBS News reported.
Two other planes were immediately diverted and the airport was subsequently closed.
Later that night, a JetBlue plane that had departed from Haiti that same day and safely landed at New York’s JFK Airport was discovered to have a bullet hole in it as well. Maybe the gunmen were upset to see them go.
As a result, Spirit, JetBlue and American Airlines all suspended flights to Haiti for the present time.
“The security situation in Haiti is unpredictable and dangerous,” the U.S. Embassy in Haiti said in a statement. “Travel within Haiti is conducted at your own risk. The U.S. government cannot guarantee your safety traveling to airports, borders, or during any onward travel. You should consider your personal security situation before traveling anywhere in Haiti.”
Planning a tropical vacation? Haiti probably isn’t the place you want to consider right now…or maybe ever.
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