“Unruly” family kicked off airline flight to Seattle

[fivebyfive]

09 JUL 2008: Southwest Airlines refused to board a woman, her sister and four children on the second leg of their Detroit to Seattle trip, claiming they were too unruly. There are always at least two sides to every story – so here are three versions of what happened:

The family

The family admits they were asked twice by flight attendants to quiet the children but said they didn’t expect to be denied travel.

The mother Wendy Slaughter told Seattle Television station KIRO-7: “The children were out of control on the flight you know; they were restless, excited and worked up, and they are kids.”

Other information from the family: it was their first flight. One of the children is autistic, another has cerebral palsy, and the sister is pregnant.

Southwest

A Southwest spokeswoman said, “They were being disruptive and unruly on the plane, and for the safety of our customers and the flight crew, we decided to not allow them to travel on to Seattle at that time. Typically if it’s a threatening behaviour, it’s not safe to travel 30,000 feet in the air in a contained environment.”

A fellow passenger

Southwest passenger Pat McElroy passenger was on the flight with the Slaughter family. He told a local TV station that, “It was the flight from hell. I never experienced anything like it in all my years of flying.”

The passenger said the children kept moving around when the seatbelt sign was on. He also said the kids were shouting, going up and down the aisle being disruptive.

The consequences

When the flight from Detroit to Phoenix landed, Slaughter was met by police who escorted her and her family from the plane. Police detained the family, and explained that they were simply too unruly to board their connecting flight to Seattle.

According to local reports, police officers donated food and a motel room to the family for the night and a grandmother paid $2,000 to get them on an Alaska Airlines flight

So?

Apparently Southwest was well within its rights to act as it did. The safety and comfort of all passengers is the responsibility of the carrier and it must do what it can to ensure it.

The airline also said that they will be giving a refund to the family but stopped short of an apology.

While Southwest’s action has its detractors, so far the reaction to the incident leans heavily in the airline’s favour. And, while it’s easy to say the carrier was too harsh, and “they were just kids”, would you think the same way if you were on the flight?

 

[Tower]

I fly a lot for business. I think Southwest did the right thing.

I'm sorry that the family was 'inconvenienced' but if they can't control their own kids, then discipline must be introduced.

I will admit now that I do spank my children if they deserve a spanking. (But I always spank because the deed was bad, not that the child was bad)

Kudos to Southwest.

 

[caresy]

After the family made the second leg of their trip on Alaskan Airlines a live radio broadcast was talking about what happened to them at the hands of Southwest. Passengers who flew on the Alaskan Airlines flight with this family called in and said that the children were just as disruptive and out of control on that flight as they were on the Southwest flight. The mother did nothing to change their behaviour and it was a horrible trip. The callers said it was not the 2 disabled children who were who were the problem, it was the other 2 children that were out of control.

In the reports I have read the mother is stressing the fact that she was with her disabled children and they were kicked off - that is disgusting using your childrens' disablities that way to make people feel sorry for you when the issue had NOTHING to do with the disabilities it only had to do with your parenting skills. (Of course I am going by what I have read - I have not talked to the mother or anyone else in person but this is MHO of what I have heard. If this is not the case I apologize to the mother.)

I was not on either flight and cannot say for certain what happened or what was appropriate, but given the info I have read, I'd say Southwest was certainly right in everything they did. Why should they apologize to a mother who has no control of her children - disabled or not? I would never allow my children to behave this way.

 

[Ham Ham]

Link to KIRO 7 Seattle web page on this story.
Video available on page.


http://www.kirotv.com/family/16819061/detail.html


On the many times I flown there has been often crying/lound children but the only time I saw someone denied air travel was in March of 2003 at Heathrow in London when when our plane that had already pulled away from the gate for take off only to returned to the terminal.

An intoxicated women in her 40's was being disruptive to the flight crew. The Captain was called to the cabin to ask disruptive passenger to please behave the women then proceed to tell him to %$# off. At this point the Captain went back to the cockpit.

Once back at the gate Bobbies with machine guns came on the plane to arrest and escort the woman off the flight.

 

[garmich]

There's already a thread on this subject called "SW removes unruly family" in the Transportation Forum.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1878194

 

[fivebyfive]

Southwest shouldn't of refunded their air fare. They SHOULD or refunded the rest of the passengers on the same plane who had to listen to that behavior.

If you can't control your children, you don't take them 30,000 feet in the air in a contained environment. Period. Why it becomes the airlines fault when a parent can't control their children is beyond me.