OK, I have mixed feelings on this, so I am wondering what y'all think. I agree that airline safety rules (such as seat belts) need to be followed and the child did need to be removed if he could not follow, but it also sounds like the staff was extremely insensitive to the mother's situation. I would expect an apology from American Airlines, too, if her version of the pilot's announcement was correct.
I, myself, personally vowed never to fly Delta again after they refused to let my sister pre-board with my wheelchair-bound nephew-TRUE STORY-my grandfather was dropping her off and reprimanded them, but to no avail. I never have flown Delta again, but if they had prices like JetBlue, I probably would. Anyway, back to what do you guys think? Should the airline have taken more care? Would it have made a difference?
By Ed Crump
CARY (WTVD) -- The mother is telling her story exclusively to Eyewitness News.
An American Eagle flight taxiing to an RDU runway was turned around Monday, but not because of a terrorist threat.
The crew was kicking an autistic Cary toddler and his mother off the plane.
Story continues below
As the American Eagle flight headed down the taxiway, 2-and a half-year-old Jarett Farrell wasn't a happy traveler.
His mother says she was doing all she could to calm the autistic boy, but got no sympathy from the flight crew.
"If they just would have been a little more understanding I think that none of this would have been a problem," Mother, Janice Farrell said.
But it became a big problem for everyone on the plane. Farrell says that's because the flight attendant was indignant.
"She kept coming over and tugging his seatbelt to make it tighter, 'This has to stay tight'. And then he was wiggling around and trying to get out of his seatbelt. And she kept coming over and reprimanding him and yelling at him," Farrell said.
One of the pilots came back to the cabin with a stern warning and Farrell says the frustration level escalated.
She says Jarrett picked up on that and things only got worse.
"He just melted down. He saw me getting upset. He was upset. He was on the floor rolling around," she said.
The pilot returned to the cockpit, turned the plane around and headed back to the terminal.
"The pilot made an announcement that there was a woman and her child on the plane and the child is uncontrollable. And at that point I just broke down," Farrell said.
Farrell says when she got back to her home in Cary she called her husband and they decided that she should call American Airlines corporate. She says a company representative apologized and said the incident should never have happened.
But that's not what American Airlines told Eyewitness News.
A spokesman in Dallas says Jarret was pitching a "raging fit".
And that Janice, who was in a front-row seat, refused to allow her bag to be placed in an overhead compartment, even though there was no under seat stowage.
He says that with a "passenger not complying with FAA regulations, this was the right decision."
Farrell says even though her travel bag had things to calm Jarrett, she did indeed give it to the flight attendant.
"She took my bag and put it up top," Farrell said.
Farrell is taking the train to see family in New Jersey and she and her husband say they will never fly American again.
(Copyright ©2008 WTVD-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6223045
11 years ago
2 comments:
There are always such incidents like this whether the child has autism or not that you hear about and/or adults wearing short skirts, etc. I think everyone's reactions are all dependent upon the airline employees reactions and how they handle it. In this case, they did not handle it well. A person with skill in handling an upset child, could have dealt with the situation much better. It's too bad this kind of thing happens and I think the people have every reason to never fly that airline again, as well as tell others not to. Just my opinion.
I forgot about those other cases. Boy, the airlines really are getting picky. I am leaning toward your side, Treen. It definitely sounds like they were extremely insensitive toward that woman and her child. Flying with my son can be a chore. He likes to kick the seats in front of him on planes, so Josh and I always sit with one of us in front of him, but once I had to fly by myself with Andrew and Maddie. I was so freaked out that something like what happened to that woman would occur. I'm lucky. My son is so good. I just made sure I had plenty to keep him occupied and I only had to reprimand him a few times for kicking seats in a flight all the way across the country.
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