Woman and autistic daughter kicked off flight

[Aragarthiel]

https://gma.yahoo.com/woman-claims-s...opstories.html

Something about this story smells fishy. If your autistic daughter has flown several times with you before and you know she won't eat room-temperature food, why were you unprepared? You're allowed to bring anything on the plane that comes from the terminals, which usually include many choices for hot food. Most planes are equipped with microwaves that you can request to use (or have the flight attendant use for you).

While the flight attendant was wrong as well, the comments to the article make some good points- namely, that if you make a few calls, airlines HAVE to accommodate health issues. They can't plan to accommodate if they never know about it, though. It's like that in any industry. If she didn't plan for the airline to accommodate, she should have been more prepared.

Another thing that seems odd- if your kid won't eat room-temperature food, why in the world did you bring snacks to begin with? Airport security doesn't allow most kinds of food (without calling first, of course), so the "snacks" were probably things like crackers that you don't really serve at anything BUT room temperature.

[Andara Bledin]

The Yahoo article is pretty sparse, but this one from ABC has a lot more details.

Apparently, the flight attendant totally failed both the customer service and basic humanity rolls and told the pilot some bullshit story that resulted in the flight being diverted before the family was asked to leave.

I mean, the flight attendant told the woman there was nothing several times before magically, there was actually something available. One 15-year-old girl potentially becoming disruptive is zero reason to divert a flight.

The video was shot by another passenger, and apparently a few other passengers thought the airline's response was bullshit. Reportedly, so did both the medical and police that were called on board after the diversion. Especially since after the flight attendant actually realized that, oh, hey, they could find something warm for the girl, she'd stopped being upset.

[Aragarthiel]

I'm pretty sure that word-for-word those articles are the same, and I don't see where it mentions the flight attendant saying they had absolutely no hot food available.

[Greenday]

I'm pretty sure that word-for-word those articles are the same, and I don't see where it mentions the flight attendant saying they had absolutely no hot food available.

I mean, perhaps the flight attendant meant there was no hot meals from first class available for economy as there's usually strict rules about not giving first class meals out outside of first class.

[Aragarthiel]

That may be possible, though it's the wording that makes a difference. He brought her a "hot" (quotations because it was actually cold) sandwich, which may not be considered first-class. But if, before that, he said there was no hot food available, he would be more in the wrong than if he had offered it, then the mother wanted him to go against policy just so she could have something else. If he said, "No, we don't serve first-class meals in economy," that's different from "No, we have no hot food."

Which begs the question- why not ask him to reheat the cold sandwich? Why request a completely different meal?

[Gravekeeper]

Yeah she totally seems scary and disruptive.

Someone's going to lose their job. -.-

[Aragarthiel]

Someone's going to lose their job. -.-

Considering flight attendants do nothing about screaming kids but are willing to kick a quiet teenager off a flight, I sure hope so. By his logic, nobody should be allowed to fly ever because we're ALL at risk of throwing a fit on a flight (in his perspective, not saying there aren't those of us who would behave).

[TheHuckster]

This whole "risk of disruptive passenger" thing is getting ridiculous. There was a Seinfeld episode where Jerry was booted off a plane because his agent went over his head and started yelling at the pilot for making him feel uncomfortable during one of his standup shows on his visit (only because she let his presence in the audience get to Jerry's head). The situation was, as many plotlines on the show, absurd, yet plausible.

I'd have to agree that this attendant is going to be fired. When you divert a flight, you lose precious fuel and it not only delays the current flight, but subsequent flights after the plane finally arrives at its destination. And in this case, it's seriously negative PR. Airlines want a damn good reason to resort to a diversion or any kind of delay.

[s_stabeler]

to say nothing of (apparently) paramedics being called. Um, i'm sorry, but paramedics aren't there for a behavioral issue - they're there for if someone has an actual medical EMERGENCY.

as for reheating the sandwich, it may well not have helped. ( the kid might well have refused the sandwich outright, on the grounds that it'd probabvly still be cold- I'm talking about what the kid would think)

oh, and to add to the utter ridiculousness- the people were kicked off the flight AFTER the situation was resolved- in other words, the kid got a hot mean, then half an hour later, the plane diverted, and the passengers were kicked off. (which makes me suspect the flight attendant played up the risk of a meltdown to the captain, incidentally- the FA probably said tot he captain "this kid could have a meltdown- scratching, the full deal- we need to get them off, they're dangerous" and the captain reacted to that. (the captain IS supposed to divert if a passenger is dangerous))