Did airline staff overreact when passenger with autism became frustrated?
May 12, 2015, 5:01 PM | Updated: 5:16 pm
An Oregon family flying home was forced to leave the United Airlines plane they were on after a 15-year-old girl with autism became frustrated.
The girl needed to eat, her mother told reporters.
At first, staff refused to serve the girl a warm meal, because the only warm meals were for first class passengers. The girl eventually got a warm meal from first class and calmed down.
However, the pilot landed the plane anyway. Police escorted the family off the plane.
Did airline staff go to far?
The airline did the right thing, KIRO Radio’s Ron Upshaw said.
“If you have a special-needs kid, it is beholden to you to accommodate the child, not everyone around you,” he said.
Don O’Neill disagrees.
“We are all part of a village,” he responded. “We should help if we can.
“I don’t think a girl with autism is going to take over a plane and we have to worry about crash landing.”
But the flight attendant isn’t going to know that, Upshaw countered.
What do you think?
Below is a view of the family being removed from the plane.
