Newsmax75%
Viral TikToker Rallies $337 Million in Pledges to Buy Spirit 20%
By Jim Thomas0%
5/9/2026, 6:14:57 PM
Topics: Crowdfunding, Airline Bankruptcy
BS Summary: This article contains 23 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Appeal to Authority, and Anecdotal, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 23.9% saturation with 126 hits. Analysis detected 700 faulty-reasoning hits from 527 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 34.6% and a BS Rank of 20% (16,953 of 21,176 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 80.10% of the article peer group.
A 22-year-old voice actor's TikTok joke has hardened into a long-shot campaign to buy Spirit Airlines out of bankruptcy, with more than 370,000 people pledging $337 million toward a co-op revival of the carrier that shut down May 2 after a failed federal rescue.
As of Saturday, no money has changed hands; the pledges are nonbinding signals of intent, and aviation lawyers say the regulatory and financial barriers to actually relaunching the airline are steep.
Hunter Peterson, a content creator who last year filmed himself flying Spirit for 24 straight hours, posted his pitch the day Spirit grounded its fleet.
If a fifth of American adults each chipped in $45, roughly the price of a one-way Spirit ticket, the public could buy the airline outright.
The model he cites is the Green Bay Packers, the only publicly owned NFL team, with more than 5 million shares held by over 530,000 owners.
Spirit ceased operations at 3 a.m. on May 2, ending 34 years of service and leaving thousands of workers without jobs and travelers holding canceled tickets.
The airline filed for Chapter 11 in November 2024 and again in August 2025, reporting roughly $8.1 billion in debt against $8.6 billion in assets.
A $500 million bailout offer from the Trump administration collapsed last week after key creditors rejected terms that would have given the government a controlling stake.
Peterson is collecting nonbinding pledges, not cash, on letsbuyspirit.com.
Each backer would get a single vote regardless of pledge size, with dividends scaled to the amount contributed.
Peterson has said publicly he does not want to own the airline and is seeking executives with industry experience to run it.
He has met with Spirit's 5,500-member flight attendant union and said Friday he had secured a legal fund to assemble a bid.
The site lists a $1.75 billion target.
The legal mechanics are formidable.
Columbia University law professor John Coffee Jr. said SEC crowdfunding exemptions cap raises at $5 million a year, far below what an airline acquisition demands, while private placements that allow larger raises are limited to investors with a net worth of $1 million or more.
A new operator must also obtain its own FAA air carrier operating certificate, a process aviation analysts say takes years and tens of millions of dollars; transferring Spirit's existing certificate would require both regulatory approval and creditor consent.
"It's a nice idea," said Charles Elson, a retired University of Delaware finance professor.
"I would be shocked if it ever became a reality.
I think it's like going to Mars."
Time is short.
An auction for some Spirit assets is expected within days, and bondholders, including Citadel, Cyrus Capital, and Ares Management, drove the rejection of the federal package.
Peterson said an aviation M&A firm has called his plan "doable" and that he is open to angel investment from high-net-worth individuals.
"We're giving it our very best shot," he said.
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana.
He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C.
Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
Speakers
4speakers36%attributed speech335writer words
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100%flagged-word coverageCharles Elson
31 attributed words16% of attributed speech90% writer coverage
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