We need to start a new campaign against AA.
 

I am so bloody mad that I could just...oh I don't know...whatever people do when they get this mad.

Have you all seen the article regarding AA throwing a mother and her autistic son off the flight.

Here is the link...I already emailed them a complaint and told them to expect more...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,371601,00.html

Just makes me spittin mad.

Missy

I saw this myself and was saddened by the whole situation. I can see both sides though. Maybe if they had been more trained in children with disabilities it would have kept the situation to a minimal. For example, allowing the mother to take a few things out of the bag she had to put in the overhead. However, at the point where the child was on the floor upset and uncontrollable, I don't think the airline had any choice but to turn the plane around.

I hope AA works with the mother to resolve this in the end. We had a serious issue with my husband's wheelchair (it was damaged beyond repair) and they were very accomodating to us.

There is no easy fix to this story.

Everyone will have their perspective on this. What should the mother have done? What should the flight attendant have done? and more important, what should the pilot have done?

I've seen autism and I've seen raging fits. An airplane is not place for anyone (I don't care how old), to have a raging fit. What if something happened, and someone got hurt?

I have seen children on planes. Some were crying, some were angels. It's hard enough for a regular 2 year old to get on a plane and stay calm for 2 hours, let alone an autistic child.

I don't think the mother thought this through. With more and more children being diagnosed with Autism every day, and I gather more people will be traveling, with their autistic children, I would imagine that the aviation industry is going to have to start teaching courses to their Flight Attendants.

How to deal with a handicapped child who is having a meltdown. Then, flight attendants can be trained to know how to deal with a child who is having a bad time of it.

This is just plain common sense. The flight attendant was clearly overwhelmed. She did not know what to do. The pilot did not know what to do either.

And the stuff with the bag, well I have no idea who is telling the truth.

It's a very hard call.

I don't blame them for getting angry, but what did he do that was so bad they had to kick him off? It sounds like the only reason was because he did wear his seat belt tight. Maybe there were other reasons?

Yes, it hurts when a problem changes our lives but after seeing the video and knowing how some autistic children react to things, yes it is not his fault, the disabled have rights, but not at the expense of others. When the plane landed in the Hudson and all got out, I wondered how me, in a wheel chair,could have gotten out. DH would try to carry me no doubt but would we both get caught in the waters? A touching love story of commitment and sacrifice but there'd be 2 kids without parents left behind or maybe they might be lost in their attempts to save Mom. My but do need to consider things. Like Melody says, 2 year olds are tough anyway on a plane. I take cruises, like anyone hopes there's no hurricane or earthquakes causing huge waves, but go knowing odds are with me. Tm not going (though I'd like to), on an Alaskan cruise, sure Alaskan ports and wilderness are not wheelchair friendly. I'll stick to the Caribbean with easy access shopping and bars.

If my child's teacher doesn't get it, that's a problem, as part of her job she should but those on an airline, it may be is not part of their job description, very outside of their experience or other factors must be considered. I don't work with planes, so I don;t know.

If I had been that child, I would have panicked, too.

Think about it.

Here you are, with probably a sensory system that really over-reacts to touch. There's a flight attendant coming up to you and randomly yanking on your seat belt. It's painful. It feels like a shock to you. You quickly loosen it. She comes by and yanks on your belt again. This time she yells at you. The loudness and hostility of her voice starts to make you desperate. You can't figure out what you did wrong. You start crying. She yells at you again. Your ability to figure out what she's saying starts to go down the tubes because you're so stressed out. Your mom's trying to make you sit down. Finally you just can't take it anymore so you rip the seat belt off and you just fall to the floor and start crying in earnest...

People should know not to go yanking on people's seat belts and yelling at them if they are autistic and already in a stressful new situation like an airplane flight. The arlines need to educate their flight attendants.

I think if I was in the situation, being in a crowded airplane, sitting so close to everyone else, the noise, being nervous because of flying, peoples perfumes and smells, I would have been in sensory overload to begin with. I would have been having a hard time handling it to start, then you add the lady pulling the seat belt and yelling and everything... they would have had to turn the plane around because I would have been beating my head off of the the nearest something hard :eek:

I have never went any place in a airplane, the thought of being locked in there and not being able to get away to calm myself, that is scary

I think the airline people need to be trained in dealing with these sort of situations, I mean, I am sure there are many non autisitcs that panic while in a airplane, what do they do then? it seems they need to come up with ways to handle these sort of situations

But what should they be trained to do? I've been dealing with my child's fight or flight for over a decade and I still don't know what to do about it, and having never flown with her, I would not even know what to anticipate. What I have noticed, too, is that frequently even people who are trained to recognize F or F behaviors still are very uncomfortable when they see it happening. So, even if the staff were trained to say, "let it run its course", you're still going to have their responsibility to the other passengers, who haven't the training, to consider.

I havent thought of that yet :Scratch-Head::p, but maybe they should start with training so they dont make the situation worse, that might help, I am also thinking that maybe they should have like a small private 'emergency' area were a couple people could sit that are having problems like this, I dont know, I just think there has to be better ways to deal with it then turning the darn plane around and going back, just seems like overkill to me, it is a airplane, seems to me it does not make u-turns so well ;)