Wendy Slaughter, her four children and her sister are too unruly for Southwest Airlines! The airline says that the children were so out of control that the airline decided to deny boarding for their connecting flight from Phoenix to Seattle — stranding them in Phoenix for the night while they tried to arrange other travel plans.
When Ms. Slaughter’s flight from Detroit to Phoenix landed, she 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.
Ms. Slaughter admits her kids were out of control on the plane, getting up and wandering around, but says that two of them have disabilities (one is autistic and another has cerebral palsy) and that “they are kids.”
“The children were out of control on the flight you know, they were restless, excited and worked up and they are kids,” Slaughter told KIRO tv. “I am furious about it. I can’t believe they could do something like that and then leave us completely stranded with no money no way to get anywhere.”
According to Slaughter, sympathetic police officers donated money for a hotel for the night and some food. The family is asking for compensation and a public apology.
Southwest Airlines is standing by their decision, claiming that the family was being threatening:
“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 behavior, it’s not safe to travel 30,000 feet in the air in a contained environment.”
Family Says Airline Left Them Stranded At Airport [KIRO](Thanks, James!)
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@wellfleet: However, how exactly do you *reason* with a child that has autism or cerebral palsy? [in the context of unruly behavior]
Soft-restraints and a sock?
@wellfleet:
[en.wikipedia.org]
Cerebral Palsy is a motor/physical disorder, not mental. Unruly behavior on the part of a kid with CP shouldn’t be put up with any more than similar behavior from a perfectly healthy, physically normal child.
@SadSam: Flying is significantly safer than driving. There have been studies done on this. Long story short, not only is the cost per air crash death prevented extremely high BUT requiring child safety seats would likely cause so many people to switch to driving that car crash deaths would actually increase more than air crash deaths decrease.
Here’s the deal.
If you can’t control your pets/kids/seniors/self, don’t bring he/she/it/them/you to restaurant/airport/trainstation/public transportation/shopping where they will cause a scene and piss people off.
I have NO IDEA how hard that is to understand, but people don’t get it. It doesn’t matter what causes the disruption, if you cause one, expect bad things to happen.
Job well done Southwest.
Southwest: We Fight the Good Fight!
I just flew back from Vegas yesterday and had to put up with some obnoxious 3 year old triplets traveling with just mom. It started at the gate, where I was tempted to whisper to the kids, “Hey, the pilot has a special toy for whoever can yell, ‘I have a bomb!” the loudest! Give it a try!”
I would never do such things, of course, but it seems that someone who is willing to inconvenience the rest of us should be begin to see the error of their ways. Yeah, I would probably get arrested as well, but unlike these parents, I’m willing to think of the other passengers before myself.
I think southwest made the right move. It was very much a safety issue.
Now for the restaurant comments… I have a reasonably well behaved 3 year old, but at 1 he was sometimes a bit difficult in restaurants. We found that trying to quiet him down usually made things worse, and by completely ignoring and avoiding eye contact he would quite in 1 – 2 minutes. Any longer and we would take him outside to calm down, etc.
Once at PF Chang’s it happened. We ignored him (it was embarrassing, I hate noisy kids in restaurants as much as anybody…). The manager came over right after he calmed down. I believe he must have already been on his way. He was very polite and asked if we needed anything, and never said anything about the child. We didn’t have any further outbursts during the stay.
I say “good onya” for Southwest. Control your offspring or suffer the consequences of their behavior.
What I can’t understand is why Southwest felt a need to refund the price of their tickets. Her kids were acting out causing them to get kicked off the plane. It’s not like the flight was canceled or something…
I don’t think they should have put them up in a hotel. They were unruly and got kicked off the flight, had it been some drunk dude who was unruly and got kicked off…there would be no hotel room for him…so why should this family get anything for such behavior?
Actions=consequences! So simple.
@mythago: Dang. Props for saying in a couple of sentences what I’ve been trying to get across for years.