United Airlines physically removed an Oregon family this last week from their flight home from Disney World because the flight crew feared for the safety of their passengers. What had them so frightened? A 15-year old autistic girl. Yes, that’s right, the flight crew was so terrified of this one teenage girl they made an emergency landing just to get her and her family off the plane. Watch the video of the family’s removal, and please note how scary this slight, headphone bedecked young woman appears as she is removed from the plane – without any need for restraints or force!
From NBC News:
Dr. Donna Beegle of Tigard, Oregon … was returning home with her family from a trip to Walt Disney World last week when her daughter Juliette became agitated because she was hungry during a layover in Houston, Beegle said.
Beegle said that after she persuaded a flight attendant to give her daughter some hot food, Juliette had calmed down and was quietly watching a movie when “the next thing we hear is we’re doing an emergency landing in Salt Lake City,” Beegle told NBC station KGW of Portland, Oregon. “We have a passenger on board with a behavior issue.”
Police officers boarded the plane and escorted the entire family off, Beegle told the station. “As a mom it ripped my heart out,” she said. “I was shaking.”
The incident was recorded in a video posted to YouTube that Beegle authenticated [see above]. In the video, a passenger can be heard remarking, “It’s ridiculous.” Another says, “That’s going to be a lawsuit.”
That unnamed passenger is right, and my guess is United settles that lawsuit as quickly and quietly as possible. This is an ugly example of prejudice on the part of that flight crew. The mother had her daughter under control. I’ve been on a lot of flight where kids were overly rowdy, or babies screamed the whole trip, and I never once saw a flight attendant suggest that those kids were so disruptive it merited an emergency stop and the removal by law enforcement of those kids and their families. But then none of those situations involved an autistic child.
My teenage nephew has an autistic spectrum disorder. Sometimes things can set him off, and he can be loud and upset until his Mom or Dad calm him down. But he’s no more of a threat (less actually) than other kids his age. There’s a stereotype going around, which some people seem to have incorporated into their tiny bigoted brains, that autistic children are prone to act out violently and thus should be considered dangerous. As a generalization, it is no more accurate than the stereotype that black men are angry, and prone to act violently.
Thousands of people with autism and other disabilities travel on planes, trains and automobiles every year. Undoubtedly many of them fly on United Airlines. Unless the company comes clean on this incident, however, and apologizes to the Beegle family, I suspect many of them might have second thoughts about continuing to fly the “friendly skies” in the future.
Wife and I are flying to San Diego later this year. United just took themselves out of the running for our business.
Other reports said that the mother indicated that her daughter needed some “hot food” to ensure that she would not “scratch other passengers”. If that is the case, I fault the parents for not being prepared. A 16 YO can be quite difficult to handle.
Here is what the mom said: “I just kind of said, `You know what? Maybe after she has a meltdown and she’s crying and trying to scratch, then you’ll help us,'” Beegle told the station.
That’s a threat. Sorry, you threaten to physically harm others, this is a problem for the parents, not the airline.
So often, when I see things like this on-line, which are almost always just snippets of video or audio, I often wonder to myself, “What is the REST of the story?” Because there is almost always valuable information or context that is lost in the moments that are unavailable to us. In this case, there are likely a myriad of that United could have better handled this situation. But, if what you cite is true, then there is certainly a bit more to the story than meets the eye. And that is almost always the case, it seems.
But since none of us were there, and all we see is this video and the stories of witnesses on-board, we are left to make judgments which will, undoubtedly, be from our own frames of references and prejudice. And the witness accounts, as often happens, will probably also conflict because they, too, are viewing what unfolds through their own biased frames of reference.
There are often rules about passenger behavior. I would imagine that the steward spoke to the pilot, and he made the call. These days, the tolerance for “threats” is zero. If you say “Gee, wouldn’t it be funny if I had a bomb?” in the screening line, you are in big trouble. No free speech there. And the statement is always made that passengers must obey flight crew.
With a child who is difficult to manage, you are responsible for planning ahead. What if the child was diabetic, and you stepped aboard with no insulin? Would you be able to demand insulin (maybe kept in an emergency kit)? People are responsible for their own health and safety.
What I would be in favor of is planes diverting if some idiot sitting next to me could not stop coughing. I have more than once caught a nasty cold after a plane flight next to some inconsiderate idiot. But I could do nothing about it.
Yes, it’s the parents’ fault. No reason for anyone else to consider anything they might have done differently. Mystery solved.
I have a kid on the ‘spectrum,’ and when I read this and watch that video, it confirms to me that we live in a barbaric, almost sadistic world, so ruled by fear that blind obedience seems the only safe choice.
It’s so sad to see us humans pissing away our lives on whether or not a flight attendant should help out a family in need of a hand. I’ve been subjected to some horrendous behavior by flight attendants, but my reaction is to wonder what’s made them so upset/angry, and what I can do to help address that.
Helping our fellow humans is supposed to be the default setting, not some kind of a pinnacle of achievement.
Been on a plane of late? Somehow I doubt it.
Your response is kind of amazing. You don’t seem to think at all about the flight attendants, who are at the heart of this.
You get on the plane. You are hungry. You say to the flight attendant “I’m in coach, but I want the hot food from first class. I’m sitting in 4c.” Q: Will you get the food?
You get on the plane. Your child is hungry. You say to the flight attendant “I’m in coach, but I want the hot food from first class for my child. I’m sitting in 4c.” Q: Will you get the food?
You get on the plane. Your autistic uncontrolled child is hungry. You say to the flight attendant “I’m in coach, but I want the hot food from first class. If I don’t get it, the child might get violent. I’m sitting in 4c.” Q: Will you get the food?
I would bet dollars to donuts that if you got the hot food from 1st class in ANY of those situation, the flight attendant’s ass would be fired before the plane touched down.
Your compassion is ridiculous in this situation. What about the responsibility of the parent? I would NEVER demand anything like this for my child.
When I am trapped for hours on a flight my “health and safety” are now being held ransom by an Airline. With the way airlines treat employees and profiteer off of their passengers this kind of event is going to happen. And it is not the parents fault.
Sure the parents may have been able to mitigate it but the airline needs to have policies to make this work.
Note I flew last week and I hate the state of flying in this country. I miss the 90s. I have no sympathy for the airline and actual antipathy for fear based arguments.
No idea where you got your “other reports”, or if they are true. But if that’s your idea of a threat, that’s pretty pathetic.
Sorry, you seem to have confused me with the cabin attendants and the pilots. In most cases, there are rigid, very clear rules about threats. And they are mostly not particularly sensitive to your opinion. If you say to the TSA guy “Say, is that a bomb in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”, the obvious Mae West reference will not be considered in the arrest report. It’s zero tolerance. The mom should not have said what she said.
Given how cheap airlines are and unwilling to provide for exceptions I totally understand the parents. I don’t draw a bright line at the reported behavior of the parents.
This is an outgrowth of the horrible way Airlines treat their employees and then grant their employees absolute power of the passengers while cutting costs and trying to profiteer off of food and snacks.
I don’t blame the family I blame United, our idiotic security policies and the use of bankruptcy to break airline unions.
Oh, the “crying baby” red-eye flights. A shared not fun experience worth smiling or laughing about upon arrival.
Our oldest has Aspergers – a form of Autism – and flying with her used to be something we dreaded. She had only one meltdown on a plane – in 1999, at age 7 – and we contained it. But she always required a ton of extra planning and monitoring. We have 3 other kids and know full well what a “normal” (whatever that is) kid requires at different ages – and a difficult child like that is much, much more of a challenge.
So I am naturally sympathetic to this story. However, like others here I want to hear the rest of the story. What we see in the video is the aftermath – what caused the decision in the first place we can’t be sure.
I fly a hell of a lot these days and I’ve seen all kinds of behaviors. Good and bad from staff and passengers. Withholding judgment at the moment.