A plane full of American Airlines passengers found themselves reduced to the status of illegal migrants when their flight was diverted to the Bahamas.
Few of the 100 passengers aboard Flight 2421 had passports with them as they boarded the two-hour flight from Puerto Rico to Miami on Saturday afternoon.
And it was midday on Sunday before they finally reached the Florida airport after their flight was diverted to the Caribbean island where they were forced to stay overnight in the terminal.
One passenger from North Carolina went viral with an impassioned TikTok that has been seen 2.6 million times since he recorded it in the middle of the night among his hungry, thirsty and exhausted comrades.
'It's like The Terminal with Tom Hanks,' wrote one horrified viewer.
The passengers had been stranded for seven hours in the airport terminal when the TikToker delivered his impassioned update from the Bahamas at 5.40am
American Airlines Flight 2421 was supposed to take two hours to reach Miami after taking off from Puerto Rico at 5.30pm on Saturday, but arrived in the city on Sunday afternoon
No passports are needed for US citizens flying from the mainland to the American territory in the eastern Caribbean.
But Hurricane Debby was gathering strength over the sea and the fight became one of 2,000 impacted by the Category 1 storm as it barreled into Florida.
'We flew round in a circle for about half an hour because of weather then the pilot decided 'hey we need to land in the Bahamas',' the TikToker told his followers.
'This is a different country. The pilot asks 'who here has their passports and who doesn't?'
'Lo and behold everybody doesn't because everybody expected to go from the US to the US.'
Three hours after taking off, the Boeing 737 touched down in the Bahamian capital Nassau, but the passengers' troubles were only just beginning.
'We land the plane, we're sitting on the tarmac for two hours, we got off the plane, turns out the pilot can't do overtime or something so we had to get off the plane,' the TikToker with the handle @griptape_dimas said.
'We got off here, we can't leave the terminal cos we're not allowed to be here, we are illegally here and not only can't we leave the airport, we can't leave the terminal, we can't do anything.'
The passengers found themselves herded into a terminal chilled by air conditioning where they were left without food, water, or blankets overnight.
Passengers were left without food, water, blankets or medicine in the freezing terminal
More than 2,000 flights were disrupted as the category 1 storm barreled into Florida at the weekend, with American Airlines the worst affected carrier
'Within the first hour of getting here we were told 'the plane's going to come, oh they're deboarding the plane, oh it's only 20 minutes to get here.
'After about hour five everybody is pulling doors, everybody here is running off like six seven hours of no food, Briscoff cookies and sodas and freezing, zero information.
The two American Airlines desk staff on the scene struggled to give meaningful updates as the hours wore on but roped in the bilingual influencer to translate their announcements into Spanish.
'After hour five I knew that the whole idea of a plane getting unboarded with a new crew from Orlando was a bunch of nonsense,' the TikToker lamented in his 5.40am update.
'Matter of fact we've been looking at the computer, after a while they turned the computer off because they didn't want us looking at it.
'Now people are having medical emergencies, there's medication on the plane, It's on the plane!
'They told a gentleman here he can't go in and get it because of laws, red tape.
'They won't call immigration because they tell us 'they're going to tell us the same thing'.
'We're on hour seven of being here; no food, no water, it's cold, there's no blankets, we have one bathroom for 100 people, dogs, children, no information.'
Tracking data from Flightradar suggests their original aircraft took off without them from Nassau at 10pm on Saturday, landing little more than an hour later in Miami.
But it was 10.15am on Sunday before the desperate passengers finally boarded a flight and took off for Miami.
'This isn't even a cool airport,' the young TikToker noted.
'Mama told me don't get off the plane, you're basically an illegal immigrant right now.
'Hopefully they'll give me my Bahamian green card.'
Millions of people found themselves gripped by the TikToker's testimony with many predicted a hefty compensation for the affected passengers.
Tracking data from Flightradar.com shows the plane's meandering path on Saturday evening before it was diverted to Nassau in the Bahamas
'Get these ppl home immediately so this guy can apply at CNN,' wrote one.
'Make sure AA gives y'all a proper trip the Bahamas so you can experience it properly,' suggested another.
'This is why you ALWAYS bring your passport when you fly, even domestically because you never know if you're going to need to stop in another country,' added a third.
Dailymail.com has reached out to American Airlines for comment.
