Thanks to a tip from regular reader and commenter Andy, we were first alerted to a troubling diversion that occurred on a Southwest Hawaii flight earlier today. Flight 3316 was en route from Las Vegas to Maui when the unconfirmed threat occurred.
The flight departed Las Vegas at 9:21 am and was due to arrive at Kahului, Maui, some six hours later. But that didn’t occur. Instead, the plane traveled some 500+ miles into its trans-Pacific journey when something serious happened. Passenger reports said that a threatening message was “airdropped” to other passengers onboard. As a result, the plane made a U-turn and ended up landing at Oakland three hours and twenty-eight minutes later.
While details of the exact threat that occurred on WN 3316 aren’t yet clear, we can confirm, based on information from FlightAware, that the diversion took place earlier today.
Passengers were forced to deplane, then aircraft was secured at Oakland.
Full details are still being pieced together as to what actually occurred. Additional reports in social media said that the threat, which may have been intended as a joke, resulted in the west coast diversions, with passengers being forced to leave the plane without their belongings in Oakland. After nearly six hours at Oakland, the flight resumed to Maui, where it landed this evening.
Prior Southwest passenger-related diversion was in December.
In that previous incident, a dispute took place between passengers that required the plane to do an about face mid-Pacific and return to its origination point in Honolulu. That took place at the time when Southwest was in recovery mode from its December meltdown.
Hawaii flight diversions.
Passenger-related diversions can range from minor disputes to more serious threats and incidents like what occurred today, that require immediate intervention by the airline and sometimes law enforcement.
Hawaii flight diversions result in aircraft being redirected to alternative airports, such as in the case of today’s Oakland diversion. When disruptive situations like this pose a threat to the safety of the flight, the captain may choose to divert to the closest location where the issue can be quickly addressed. Given the great over-water distances between the mainland and Hawaii, at times the nearest airport can be hours away.
Flight diversions are something both the airlines and law enforcement take very seriously in order to ensure the safety of all those onboard. Flight diversions are also a serious inconvenience to passengers, like the additional hours spent in Oakland, on today’s Southwest Hawaii-bound flight. Kudos to all involved in the situation being resolved safely and passengers arriving on Maui, albeit later than they would have liked.
The added costs to WN that they will never be able to recover. In addition to additional pilot and flight attendant expense for timing-out, added fuel expense and WN most likely provided food vouchers to the affected passengers for all the wonderful dining available within the Oakland terminal!…lol
Probably the only good thing that comes out of this, once the perp is discovered, in addition to any jail time, they will be added to the “No Fly List”…at least one can hope.
It’s the Southwest effect, the “ugly American” class of tourist low fare carriers attract. Just like Spirit. Hawaii doesn’t need this, but BOH loves SWA. ??? $
Please refrain from stereotyping James. Budget airlines have made it much cheaper seeing my children who were going to college on the mainland. Flights on Hawaiian used to average $500-600 and flights on the budget ranged from $200-350. Before they could visit maybe 2 times a year. I was blessed to see them at least once a quarter. It was the same situation for other families that I know. Yes, there are some bad apples, but the majority of the people that use budget airlines are good people.
Uhh….WN is not a “budget” airline, at least as what would be thought of as a budget airline in today’s operating environment.
WN’s fares are usually much higher than Allegiant, Frontier and Spirit on comparable routes.
True, no place to plug-in to charge your phone and/or laptop.
However, more legroom on WN than Spirit’s average 28″ body stuffing seat pitch, and for all 3 airlines, WN does not charge any kind of pesky/silly ticketing/user interface fees if you elect Not to purchase your ticket at the airport ticket counter Allegiant, Frontier and Spirit do. Don’t believe me? Review your cost breakdown line-by-line the next time you purchase a ticket from one these 3 fee grabbing airlines.
At Southwest, it’s easy to change your flight plans and keep the full value of your ticket without fees!
Lastly, when you fly with Southwest you’re not subject to the Jerry Springer Show as you are when flying Spirit with fist-fights and sheer bedlam breaking out at: baggage claim, ticket counter, boarding gate area and on-board the airplane.
Some god news…I guess??…Alaska isn’t being so punitive with their Saver fares. For tickets purchased after July 19, 2023, AS will give you 50% back of what you paid for your Saver ticket toward the purchase of another ticket. Currently, AS Saver tickets are completely non-refundable or changeable after more than 24 hours from time of purchase.
As my son & daughter in law are residents of Hawai’i my wife and I enjoy a ‘cost free’ visit. We buy all the food we need for our 10 day visits. We enjoy the island so much it’s hard to depart back to land lubber northTexas ‘hill country’. We were able to be there when last elections were held and enjoyed ‘Luau’ dining with the natives. Headed back there from Dallas Love Field in mid August, just after my 77th birthday.
Mahalo, y’all.
Glad everyone was safe and the situation was resolved
I remember when we had air marshals onboard airplanes. Is that something that isn’t provided in today’s world?
It’s certainly infantile behavior that caused the problem and hopefully the perpetrator will be found. It’s a long enough flight to Hawaii as it is without nonsense like this to disrupt the plans of others by a forced return. Thankfully there wasn’t any accompanying problems and SWA handled this appropriately!
It would appear that in today’s society, that we have some people with mental issues. Gun ownership is another problem. It would appear that a few more people need to be in institutions..
Unfair to gun owners . . .
It took three and half hours to turn around to Oakland. Why not keep going. Maybe more to the story. I know most people will get angry but raising the cost of flights might keep some undesirables away. Cheap flights mean more destruction for Hawaii.
Apple iPhone users should set their phones to Not receive these so-called “humorous” attempts to send messages/photos to their phones. This is my setting to exclude strangers from sending me anything via AirDrop 24 hours per day:
Settings > General > AirDrop > “Contacts Only”
If someone not in my Contacts list wants to share something with me via AirDrop, I briefly change the setting to “Everyone for 10 minutes,” then return the setting to “Contacts Only.”
Exactly! That’s how mine is set too. Wonder if they found out whose phone it es that sent it? Couldn’t they have called the number back somehow?
Oh this poor sad world. People people I beg you. Do not have children, unless you can afford them, take care of them, and most of all love and educate them properly. This all starts in the home. Quit blaming school systems, law, etc. Grandparents, quit bugging your children to have grandkids when you know they can not afford them, are uneducated and uncaring. I am so glad everyone on board are safe and landed safely.
Yu are sooo right! This is getting beyond ridiculous!
Some of the most nefarious people come from privilege upbringing.
I don’t understand what is so wrong with a person that they feel the need to do something like that. Obviously the message came from a passenger. Didn’t they realize they were going to have their flight delayed? Hope they throw the book at this person. They need to stop serving alcohol in airports and on planes.