Your post is not quite accurate. There were six people involved, four of them nuns. All six exhibited an odor of sulphur. They were not left to fend for themselves.
Four California nuns say they were among six passengers kept off an American Airlines flight in January after crew members complained of a sulfur smell in the cabin and ordered passengers off the plane.
Attendants on the Fresno flight reported something that "smelled like sulfur," and the pilot ordered all of the passengers to deplane. All but six passengers were quickly cleared to re-board the aircraft, and all of those eventually were cleared and booked on another flight.
CNN story with all details