American Airlines flight filled with fog after diversion

Passenger describes the experience as ‘10 hours of hell’

Footage taken by passengers shows the extent of the fog on the flight (Twitter)

Passengers on an American Airlines flight from Miama to Costa Rica sat on the tarmac for three hours as the aircraft cabin filled with fog.

The flight on 8 June was diverted to Managua in Nicaragua after the closure of Costa Rica’s Liberia airport due to potholes.

Video footage taken by Jason Kral, a 35-year-old lawyer from Florida who described the experience as “10 hours of hell”, shows the cabin full of fog, while another passenger can be heard exclaiming, “Are you kidding?”.

It is believed that the fog effect was caused when the air-conditioned air inside the plane met the hot and humid air outside, after cabin crew opened the aircraft’s doors while awaiting further instruction.

A spokesperson for the airline told the Daily Mail: “It is due to the temperate differential, but it is not smoke and is quite normal.”

Mr Kral, his wife and their two children, aged 11 months and four years, had been travelling to the Central American destination for a family holiday when the ordeal occurred.

“They couldn’t turn it off or on and it was just pumping the plane full of it,” said Mr Kral.

“The pilot joked that it was like Halloween.

“We have an 11-month-old and a four-year-old. I was standing above them but could hardly see them. It was like a fog machine.”

Mr Kral described the bizarre incident as an “out of body experience.”

“We didn’t know what was going on and people were getting jumpy,” he said.

Passengers were issued with sandwiches, which Mr Kral described as “horrible”.

The flight eventually had to return to Miami with everyone onboard, as passengers were unable to be processed by Nicaraguan immigration.

After their Costa Rica plans were thwarted, an unhappy Mr Kral and his family headed to Bonita Springs for their holiday.

A spokesperson for American Airlines apologised for the diversion and delay, but said that, “the safety of our customers and team members is our top priority.”