'Disruptive' passenger forces London-bound American Airlines jet to turn back in face mask row

A London-bound American Airlines flight was forced to return to Miami an hour into its journey after a "disruptive" passenger refused to follow the mandatory requirement to wear a face mask.

The flight landed safely at Miami International Airport, where it was met by police, the airline said. Police escorted the passenger, a woman in her 40s, off the plane, CBS station WFOR-TV reported. 

Following the incident, the woman was put on American’s internal no-fly list pending further investigation, an airline spokesman said.

The Boeing 777 was around an hour into the transatlantic flight carrying 129 passengers and 14 crew members, when pilots re-routed it, according to tracking service FlightAware.

Thousands of passengers have been banned by airlines for the duration of the pandemic for refusing to follow mandatory mask requirements designed to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Airlines reported nearly 6,000 incidents involving unruly passengers last year and 151 in the first two weeks of this year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, most of them involved passengers who refused to wear masks.

A spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Police Department said American Airlines staff dealt “administratively” with the passenger and she was not arrested.

In a statement, the airline said: "American Airlines flight 38 with service from Miami (MIA) to London returned to MIA due to a disruptive customer refusing to comply with the federal mask requirement.

"We thank our crew for their professionalism and apologise to our customers for the inconvenience."