A Spirit Airlines flight from Atlantic City to Boston left four hours late on Sunday because Atlantic City International Airport didn’t have any TSA agents to process the pilots. Apparently, the TSA staff had all gone home for the evening and had to be called back.
According to NBC Philadelphia, Spirit Flight 332 was supposed to leave Atlantic City at 5 p.m. but weather delays in other areas of the country prevented passengers from boarding the aircraft until 8 p.m. However, once the passengers were aboard they were informed that the pilots would not arrive for another hour due to a lack of TSA staff at the airport.
“The gate agent who came onto the plane with an update said the pilots are on their way but they can’t get to the plane because there’s nobody at TSA to process them...The TSA folks had gone home… so they were waiting for somebody to come back to the airport from TSA...How can Atlantic City airport be without a TSA presence when there’s still people there? It’s not like this is 3 o’clock in the morning” - passenger, Mike D’Angleo
In a statement, Spirit airlines said that the pilot was delayed due to inclement weather from a previous flight and that passengers were allowed off the aircraft while they waited for the crew to arrive. The airline did confirm that the “TSA had closed operations but reopened at Spirit’s request and the crew was able to make the flight.”
This is a rare instance of complaints about a Spirit Airlines flight that has nothing to do with Spirit’s baggage policies.