Autistic girl kicked off flight because captain was uncomfor

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Source: http://wgntv.com/2015/05/09/girl-with-a ... -with-her/

PORTLAND, Ore. — A mother in Oregon is planning a discrimination lawsuit after her daughter, who has autism, was escorted off a United Airlines flight along with the rest of her family.

KATU reports Donna Beegle was returning home from Disney World with her family, including her 15-year-daughter Juliette, when Juliette got hungry.

Beegle told the station her daughter did not want the food she had bought, and did not like the food they had on board. The mother said she went up to a flight attendant to ask if they had any hot food.

After a “25-minute back-and-forth,” according to KATU, Beegle said she was told they could not accommodate the girl because the family was sitting in economy class, not first class.

“I just kind of said, ‘You know what? Maybe after she has a meltdown and she’s crying and trying to scratch, then you’ll help us,'” Beegle told the station.

According to KATU the flight attendant eventually complied, but then about 30 minutes later a member of the flight crew said the plane would be making an emergency landing because of a passenger behavior issue.

“Then the police said, ‘Well, you know, we’re going to have to ask you to leave the plane.’ And I said, ‘I don’t understand why? There’s no issue. What is the problem?’ And he said, ‘Well, the captain doesn’t feel comfortable flying to Portland with your daughter on the plane,'” Beegle told KATU.

United Airlines released a statement to KATU that said the following:

“After working to accommodate Dr. Beegle and her daughter during the flight, the crew made the best decision for the safety and comfort of all of our customers and elected to divert to Salt Lake City after the situation became disruptive. We rebooked the customers on a different carrier and the flight continued to Portland.”

According to KATU Beegle said she is in the process of filing a lawsuit. She has filed claims with both United Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The family did not disrupt anyone. The airline disrupted the passengers by making an unscheduled emergency landing for no good reason simply to get the family off the plane.

She is right to make a case against them and other passengers who were on the flight would likely do the same because they were inconvenienced for no acceptable reason, as the meal issue didn't bother them.

The airline is supposed to be providing a service, and comply with any reasonable requests from passengers. Even if they arranged another flight for the family, this was uncalled for.

There's another thread about this issue: passengers supportive of the autistic girl. Link here:

viewtopic.php?t=284902

Another article with a video of them being removed.

‘She wasn’t put off plane because of autism’

I don't think she has a case. I have to wonder why the mother didn't bring the proper food with her, or make arrangements ahead of time to get hot food.

So, an autistic girl is hungry and asks for food. They give her food, but she says she wants a hot meal instead. They don't give it to her, which upsets her. Her getting upset poses a massive risk to all the passengers on board the plane.

I'm sorry, but I just can't take this story seriously. Whoever asked for her and her family to be removed from the plane is a complete moron. Part of me thinks that this was a publicity stunt, people exploiting the girl to be in the public eye. I mean, who wouldn't be upset at being denied food when hungry? Just because she reacted in a "different" way to how a "normal" person would react to being denied food she posed a risk to the other passengers? Just give her the food she wants and she'll be perfectly okay, right? Like SERIOUSLY?!

Sorry but reading stories like this just makes me mad. Because someone is, in my dad's words, "wired differently" to the "norm", they are treated differently. For me it is like a form of prejudice.

The girl is guilty of: Her Mum accidentally letting others know she's Autistic.

It's straight from the vile stigmas "Autism can cause them to randomly become violent", and it's amazing that in 2015, I still have to explain that Autism and Asperger's doesn't cause you to become violent.

Maybe her mum shouldn't have told the flight attendant that she'd scratch people if she didn't get food?

“I just kind of said, ‘You know what? Maybe after she has a meltdown and she’s crying and trying to scratch, then you’ll help us,'” Beegle told the station.

“The child would make noise every now and then, no louder than, say, a baby crying,”

She's a 15 year old girl, sitting between the window and her Dad. Scratching would have been a mild self injurious stim, to stop herself from going into a full meltdown. None of it is even remotely a threat to anyone, and an emergency landing to remove a 15 year old girl shouldn't have happened.

Here's why it did happen: Because you have horrid, monstrous people, that aren't comfortable just being around AS people because they're too insecure. They start making assumptions in their head, then because they're insecure bigoted monsters, they magically shove those assumptions into their alternate reality. That's how a child making sounds on a plane, magically becomes a threat, where people think "OMG Autism and Meltdowns! She could go crazy and open an exit door mid-flight!" and that then becomes the mantra used to treat them horribly.

It's how they can double down after the discrimination, and spread the vile stigmas some more with this:
“After working to accommodate Dr. Beegle and her daughter during the flight, the crew made the best decision for the safety and comfort of all of our customers and elected to divert to Salt Lake City after the situation became disruptive. We rebooked the customers on a different carrier and the flight continued to Portland.”
-- United Airlines

It's disgusting and monstrous, I hope they throw the book at these pieces of s**t.

That was exactly the problem. As soon as the mother said that, the pilot had no choice, but to land and get her off the plane. I think it was the mother who was having a meltdown, not the daughter.

Which is a gross overreaction that's based on stigma and discrimination. He did have a choice, and he chose to believe the vile stigmas and discriminate. Asking to pay for the food is completely irrelevant, at best. At worst, it shows the attitude of these people "Oh, how dare you ask to pay for the food from 1st class, know your place!"

The captain sure did overreact.

The passengers were quite happy. They didn't feel threatened by the situation and I'm mighty sure they didn't want to have an unscheduled stop and their time wasted by the carrier who's supposed to provide best service to them.

It's not as if an undetected cobra had suddenly escaped from someone's hand luggage!

The mother said that she will maybe SCRATCH and then they will do something. So she basically told them that her daughter can become violent if she doesn't get what she wants and that is considered a threat.

“I just kind of said, ‘You know what? Maybe after she has a meltdown and she’s crying and trying to scratch, then you’ll help us,'” Beegle told the station.

This is not a threat by any stretch of the imagination.

In order to call it a threat, you have to; first believe in the vile stigmas, and then, do a lot of mental gymnastics to then believe it's a threat.

For example, you have to believe the nonsense about meltdowns being "violent episodes", in which AS people "go crazy" and will potentially kill someone. It's absolute crap, and a convenient excuse to commit such discrimination.

Crying and scratching is simply not a threat. You do have to perform some gold medal mental gymnastic to envision a 15 year old girl, overcoming her own father, to then run about violently scratching people -- it's beyond stupid.

Maybe the mother meant her daughter will try and scratch herself or maybe she just said that so they will do what she wants and it backfired. Maybe the girl doesn't go violent when she melts down but I have sure heard horror stories about autistic people attacking others during their "meltdown" or throwing things and wrecking things and parents post that crap online about their kids on the spectrum especially here in the Parents forum. I know not all meltdowns are violent and I don't like it when people call violence meltdowns.

I think it's probably important to imagine it from the guy the mother spoke to. After he say he couldn't make the accommodations, probably discouraged it in training and he doesn't want to get in trouble (I imagine they prepare them for scenarios where people offer to buy food from the wrong class and it'd cause chaos so they're told to say no), the mother said the daughter would scratch if she didn't get their own way. So obviously he goes and tells someone a passenger will go violent if they don't get food and what should he do about this. Afraid of the situation escalating midair, they give in, but are worried because what they've heard is she's violent and they call the ground to say this, who tells them to land and they'll get the police.

The mother went the complete wrong route about this. Also, if she knew her kid is picky and only eats from first class, why didn't they pay for first class? I wouldn't blame the flight crew, they just followed procedures for violent passengers, which is what they were told they had. Why the mother would even suggest that is beyond me.

So I think rather than creating fear surrounding her daughter, she should have planned ahead.

Rather than putting the flight crew in that situation, maybe she should have asked to make accommodations way in advance. Rather than trying to come up for an amount to charge, they could have created a prearranged price for the food. However, this could mean other people around her try and ask for the same thing, which could go bad. I dunno, that's why it's someone on the ground's job to try to plan this way in advance. If you need accommodations you shouldn't just dump it on people mid air to deal with.

Like if you had a number of food allergies which conflicted with the system already in place to make food, you shouldn't just turn up at the door and be expected to be served. You should write it down in advance and give it to the chef who can then plan how he's going to make it safe for you to eat there, or can come to the conclusion it's not possible to create a meal for you.

Her mother should have said what she needed done and the airline could then decide if they could provide accommodation or not, instead flying them on a different airline who can.

Maybe I'm overthinking this. I still blame the mother for what happened and the media for not providing a full story, instead a bias towards the airline being wrong. There could have been a problem in their communication of what was going on but health and safety on US airlines has changed a lot post-9/11. They don't want any risks onboard.