# Teenager with Down syndrome not allowed to board American Airlines fli



## amtrakwolverine (Sep 5, 2012)

> The parents of a teenager with Down syndrome say they suspect they were kept off an American Airlines flight because the pilot didn’t want a disabled child in first class, while the carrier counters the decision was made for safety reasons.


http://overheadbin.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/05/13684941-teenager-with-down-syndrome-not-allowed-to-board-american-airlines-flight?lite


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## the_traveler (Sep 5, 2012)

Although you can't always believe what you read and hear as true, I do not believe what AA did was right or called for in the least!



I have disabilities also, and would not like to be told that I can not do what I want or sit where I want. I do not agree with what happened then, but it almost sounds like the 1950's and 1960's all over again.

No wonder AA is losing money. They turn away money (and in fact extra money) paid to them!


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## JayPea (Sep 5, 2012)

This strikes very close to home. I have a niece with Down syndrome, and it would greatly peeve me if this ever happened to her. She's flown several times, and never been a problem. She is one, too, who is very set in her ways and has to have her routine just so. But she, so far as I know, has never had any problems whatsoever flying.


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## Anderson (Sep 6, 2012)

Score another point for airline PR!


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## Devil's Advocate (Sep 6, 2012)

It seems unlikely that the pilot would care that much. However, it's possible that one of the flight attendants asked the pilot to kick the family off the plane on their behalf. As with a conductor on a train the pilot has final say on who stays and who goes. Presumably American Airlines could have chosen to replace the pilot, but that may have created other difficulties and would have been an unlikely course of action unless the pilot was behaving in a manner that implied he was incapable of piloting the aircraft safely. All I can say is that I find the story curious and would like to hear the other side as well. Maybe this child really was running amok. That being said, the whole post-9/11 "safety" claim is getting so tired and old at this point that I can barely stand it anymore. People who feel threatened by a down syndrome child probably shouldn't be working with the public. They should be working much closer to home where they can hide in naive safety from everything they don't understand.


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## jis (Sep 6, 2012)

Apparently American finally rebooked them on a later United flight. Curiously, the family was upset with United too because they were placed on the last row of the plane

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8527945/us-downs-syndrome-boy-jet-security-risk

According to some news reports were considering suing United for discrimination too. Oh well....


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## PRR 60 (Sep 6, 2012)

jis said:


> Apparently American finally rebooked them on a later United flight. Curiously, the family was upset with United too because they were placed on the last row of the plane
> 
> http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8527945/us-downs-syndrome-boy-jet-security-risk
> 
> According to some news reports were considering suing United for discrimination too. Oh well....


UA not only put them in the last row, they reportedly cleared the next to the last row as a buffer.


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## SarahZ (Sep 7, 2012)

If I pay extra money for a First Class ticket and someone's kid (disabled or not) is running around making lots of noise, I'd be pretty ticked. They should not have kept him off the plane, though. I've seen plenty of kids running around at airports, and they aren't kept off. His size has nothing to do with it. Sure, he's overweight, but it's not like he's 6'1" and 330 pounds. He's actually shorter than most 16-year old boys.

If they made it a policy to forbid unruly children to board the plane, the planes would be pretty empty. This is B.S.

That said, none of us saw exactly how he was behaving at the airport, so it's hard to make a judgment call.


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## Bob Dylan (Sep 7, 2012)

Texas Sunset said:


> It seems unlikely that the pilot would care that much. However, it's possible that one of the flight attendants asked the pilot to kick the family off the plane on their behalf. As with a conductor on a train the pilot has final say on who stays and who goes. Presumably American Airlines could have chosen to replace the pilot, but that may have created other difficulties and would have been an unlikely course of action unless the pilot was behaving in a manner that implied he was incapable of piloting the aircraft safely. All I can say is that I find the story curious and would like to hear the other side as well. Maybe this child really was running amok. That being said, the whole post-9/11 "safety" claim is getting so tired and old at this point that I can barely stand it anymore. People who feel threatened by a down syndrome child probably shouldn't be working with the public. They should be working much closer to home where they can hide in naive safety from everything they don't understand.


:hi: Hear! Here! As we all know, Amtrak has some staff this applies too also!


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## George Harris (Sep 9, 2012)

Hmmmm:

Did anyone notice that this was their RETURN flight? Whose airline did they use to get to New Jersey? How did that flight go? Maybe there were some issues on the way east that the airline did not want to have repeated.

As to this whole "safety" and "proximity to the cockpit" thing? Give me a break!! That just sounds silly. If the plane crew in their locked cockpit is threatened by a 5'-1" tall 160 lb teenager they have a problem already.

The airline my live to regret this. Note the kid's father was describes as an attorney.


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