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American Eagle Harsh on Autistic Kid

On Monday, a mother and her autistic son were kicked off of an American Eagle flight in North Carolina.

Apparently, the autistic child was squirming because an angry flight attendant kept yelling at him and cinching the seatbelt tightly across his lap.

After this went on for a while, one of the pilots came back and yelled at the kid then announced that he was turning back to the gate when the child threw a fit because the pilot yelled at him.

I recently hammered a woman for overreacting to peanuts being served on a flight while her allergic son was aboard. But I think I side with the parent on this one.

The difference is a safety issue. In the peanut story, it doesn’t appear that anyone was in any real danger. The mother overreacted. Here, no one was in danger. The airline overreacted.

This is a two and a half year old autistic child. He probably doesn’t understand a bunch of grown ups yelling at him and tightening a seatbelt until it causes physical discomfort. It’s not hard to keep him in the seat, and while he’s in the seat, what’s going to happen? Nothing.

I squirm in my seat whenever I fly.

I have the unfortunate pleasure of being tall enough that the seat feels like a medieval torture contraption. It’s impossible to get comfortable. I’m tall enough that my knees are practically against the seat in front of me, and my head is above the head rest. I’m also about 25% wider in the shoulders than the seat is, so I’m always leaning into the aisle to avoid leaning on my fellow passenger. This always leads to fun incidents where I get smashed with the refreshment cart every time it passes. The seats are so moronically designed that even when I have the fortune of an empty seat beside me, allowing me to lean away from the aisle, I still get hit with the cart.

My flights are non-stop squirm and discomfort sessions, but I’ve never had a flight attendant or pilot threaten to turn the plane around if I didn’t sit still.

Who cares if a little kid squirms? He’s a little kid. At least he wasn’t SCREAMING the whole time like some kids. If you want to throw someone off the plane, start with them.

It’s not like this kid was running up and down the aisle, pushing buttons in the galley, trying to open the door in midair, and attempting to hijack the plane. We’re talking about a two and a half year old.

Does this flight attendant just get off on being mean? Did she really need to resort to this and delay the flight for everyone? Do all the other passengers feel that it was worth the delay to have this kid removed?

This is beyond stupid.

In my opinion, this flight attendant should have to sit in a passenger seat with the seatbelt cinched down as tight as I can make it for five hours. Whenever she talks or moves, I should be able to yell in her face with a bullhorn at full volume. The whole time this goes on, an evil clown should juggle knives around her head. That might closely approximate the terror this poor little kid probably felt.

The pilot should just be moved to the ground crew – the one who has to empty the toilets.

Hopefully this is one of the routes that is about to get discontinued, along with the jobs of these two clowns. Shamelessly, a spokesman for the company told the news that:

Farrell was not “complying with FAA regulations” and “this was the right decision,” explaining she wouldn’t put her bag in the overhead compartment.

How about saying this instead, you gutless clown: “We deeply regret this incident and sincerely apologize for handling this situation in such a thoughtless and harsh manner. We will be in contact with Mrs. Farrell to discuss how we can remedy this situation and ensure it never happens again.”

Fire this joker too. Get him a job down on some dude ranch in Texas cleaning horse manure out of stalls.

What is wrong with air travel these days? Why did 9/11 make us forget how to be civil toward one another?

How hard is it to not be cruel to an autistic kid?

Captain Weak Ass Says: Hey Kids! This pilot and flight attendant should come work for me on the Illinois Tollway! We hire quality people; that’s how they came up with my lame ass! Remember not to piss off Judd and Lewis! Till next time, I’ll still suck!