Toddler (and Mom) Thrown Off Plane for Saying Buh-Bye

Karen Murphy — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:06:00 GMT

Anybody who's been on a plane with their kids knows what a job it is keeping everyone happy. Cranky toddlers + airplane + vacation excitement/lack of sleep = disaster. I should know, since as the former wife of an airline pilot I got to travel a lot. Woo! With 3 kids in tow! Traveling stand-by! Which means you never know if you're getting on the plane until the last minute, if at all (you are SO jealous right now, I can tell)!

It also means that I know the drill for having someone removed from a plane. The Captain (pilot) is completely in charge of the plane. After all, he's got your life in his hands. So if he says you're off the plane, you're off. Just like that. No questions asked. The thing is, the pilots mostly stay up in the cockpit, flying the airplane. For which we should be glad. But that means that they're not exactly privy to all that goes on in "the back", where the ~~unwashed masses~~ passengers are. So who's really in charge back there? Why, the flight attendants, of course. Which means that if one doesn't take a shine to you, for whatever reason, there's a chance she/he can convince Mr. Bigshot Pilot to have you thrown off. Because he's got to make a snap judgment, along with pushing buttons and levers and talking to the tower and calculating how much fuel they have and using words like "vector" and thinking about the fight he had with his wife or the flight attendant he'd like to boink or maybe both, based on what some flight attendant, who chances are he's never even worked with before because pilot crews and flight attendant crews travel in different circles, is telling him. And he's got, like, maybe seconds to do this.

So the fact that Kate Penland and her 1.5 year old son Garron were thrown off a Continental ExpressJet flight recently doesn't altogether surprise me. But it does sicken me. According to witnesses, Garron said "Bye plane" repeatedly during the flight attendant's safety demonstration (do you pay attention to those? does anyone? should they? well, yes, but do they? hardly), and afterward the flight attendant leaned in to Ms. Penland and suggested she give Garron drugs to keep him quiet. Before anybody knew what was happening, the plane was taxiing back to the gate to be met by Houston police, who found no altercation and issued no ticket to Ms. Penland, but still she and Garron were forced to deplane.

I'm completely open to the possibility of there being another side to the story. Passengers aren't usually asked to leave planes just willy-nilly; the pilot has to fill out reports and stuff when this happens, and the pilots I know hate paperwork. And toddlers can be hell on planes; I once flew back to the U.S. from Ireland with a screaming 2-year-old who was in pain and could not be soothed by anything despite massive doses of Tylenol, until she finally passed out and all I can say is that I'm very glad they found another seat for the guy in front of us. But in this case, other passengers are saying that Garron wasn't any louder than any of the adult passengers, so what gives? Most flight attendants I've run across are pretty professional and courteous; was this one PMSing? Hates kids? Has hemorrhoids? What, then? You can bet that Continental will be taking a hard look at this, what with all the media attention, and I for one would like the full story. I'd like to be comfortable flying with my kids, not worrying whether one wrong move could get us a free trip back to the airport.

Girl Kicked Off Plane Due to Coughing Fit

Karen Murphy — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 18:32:00 GMT

Here I was thinking recently that Continental may be my new favorite airline. I hadn't flown them before until this past week, but I was impressed with the low cost of my last-minute ticket, the ease of check-in, and the fact that they may be one of the only remaining airlines to offer food in coach at no additional cost (not that it was good food, you understand, but at least it was something. And there were M & M's). So imagine my surprise when I read that Rachel Collier, a teenage girl returning to Hawaii from a school trip to New York City, was kicked off her plane and made to remain behind while her classmates went home without her, all because she was coughing.

I don't know, I'm thinking that this was a little, you know, extreme. Coughing?? I was married over ten years to an airline pilot and I'm pretty familiar with the circumstances under which they may and may not have someone removed from a plane. Sure, it's always the captain's decision, but at the same time they have a mountain of paperwork to do about it and explanations to be made, so for the most part, unless the pilot is a real control freak (which is a very real possibility, believe me), they don't make those decisions lightly. In other words, they'd better be pretty darned sure that the person in question is likely to cause a real disturbance or be somehow unsafe or prevent the flight attendants from doing their jobs. In this case, a doctor on the flight checked Rachel out and said she could make the trip safely, and flight attendants gave her water and all. But still the captain said no, and Rachel was left stranded with a teacher who stayed behind with her, with no luggage, no place to stay, no nothing.

I've had coughing fits that lasted a few minutes. I'm guessing lots of people have. Maybe there's more to the story than what's in the article, but I'm still thinking that removing Rachel from the flight was an overreaction and unnecessary (did they think she had TB, maybe? Avian flu? Hardly). I'll bet her parents were freaking out. Continental has agreed to reimburse her for the extra expenses incurred by having to stay behind but I'm thinking it's not enough to make up for the humilation and consternation experienced during her unplanned extra stay in the Big Apple.

Strollerderby : Continental airlines

Toddler (and Mom) Thrown Off Plane for Saying Buh-Bye

Girl Kicked Off Plane Due to Coughing Fit