Allegiant plane returns to St. Pete-Clearwater after issue

An Allegiant Airlines passenger jet had to return after taking off from St. Pete-Clearwater Airport Wednesday afternoon.

Flight 2874 was headed to Bangor, Maine but looped around after developing some sort of in-flight issue.

An airline spokesperson said the plane "returned to field shortly after takeoff to address a maintenance issue. No emergency was declared."

Passengers were being loaded onto another plane to complete the trip.

The issues with the flight stranded a 15-year-old unaccompanied minor.

Vanessa Easler's mother Michelle says her daughter was left unattended in baggage claim for hours.

"They kicked her out and put her in the baggage claim and nobody stayed with her. So, that was a real problem for me because she's still a minor," said Easler.

According to Allegiant policy unaccompanied minors are not allowed to get on flights that may be diverted.

Allegiant says the flight that eventually took the passengers to Maine had a risk of being diverted for weather. The airline says the teen was left alone because they don't have the staff to watch minors in these situations. They apologized for the family's inconvenience.

"We will never use Allegiant airlines ever again. We had no problems with them in the past but this is my child an and she comes first and I can't ever put her in danger like that again," said Easler.

This is the latest of several incidents for Allegiant.  

The airline delayed and canceled flights nationwide last week and passengers were forced to evacuate from their plane after landing in Clearwater a month ago.