Passenger Ethan Judelson, 28, took to TikTok to share his experience on the flight, claiming there was minimal communication from airline staff about the reason behind the emergency landing. 

"I look around, no one's on the ground, no one's freaking out. I'm like, it can't be that dire," he explained. "But we land, and as soon as we land, this woman across the aisle from me shoots up and rushes to the front of the plane."

“So the girl next to me... we were both like, ‘Why is she so rushed to get off? We’re all getting off together, calm down’.”

Judelson said flight crew assured passengers they would receive information at the gate, but were only told that their flight would be delayed by 12 hours. 

Speaking to PEOPLE about a month after the incident, Judelson said he only learned of the lice outbreak the next though “word of mouth”. 

Judelson said that it wasn’t until he returned to the airport the following day that other passengers told him the flight was grounded by lice, and alleged that two girls had alerted a flight attendant after spotting bugs crawling out of another passenger’s hair. 

In a statement American Airlines said "On June 15, American Airlines flight 2201 with service from Los Angeles (LAX) to New York (JFK) diverted to Phoenix (PHX) due to the medical needs of a customer."

@ethanforyou Replying to @Ana kyriakos ♬ original sound - Ethan Judelson