Plane forced to turn around after woman fakes illness to get a bigger seat

A woman was taken into protective custody for pretending she was experiencing a breathing problem in order to get a bigger seat on an American Airlines flight from Pensacola to Miami, reports NBC News.

The pilot decided to turn the plan around and landed in Pensacola. When the plane landed, the woman refused to get off and admitted she'd lied. Everyone else on the plane deboarded, and the woman remained as the sole passenger. Authorities eventually talked her into leaving. Once she exited, she was taken into protective custody.

From NBC News:

"American Eagle 3508 returned to Pensacola due to a passenger who requested medical assistance," American Airlines said in a statement to NBC News on Friday. "The flight took off at 5:43 a.m. and landed back at Pensacola at 6:26 a.m. and taxied to the gate. All [passengers] deplaned normally at the gate through the main boarding door and onto the jet bridge. The passenger was subsequently removed by law enforcement and medical personnel, and the flight took off again at 7:41 a.m."

Photo by Patrick Cardinal - originally posted to Flickr as American Airlines Boeing 737-800, CC BY 2.0, Link