Capt'n Fuckwit at the helm
Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 5:18 am
A US family were forced to disembark a United Airlines flight after the captain became uncomfortable continuing the flight with an autistic passenger.
Returning home on a flight from Houston to Portland after a few days in DisneyWorld with her parents and brother, Juliette Beegle, 15, and her family were escorted by police from the plane after the captain made an emergency landing.
Mother, Donna Beegle told ABC News that Juliette was diagnosed with autism just before her third birthday. While she has a high IQ, she says her daughter has trouble communicating.
During the flight, Beegle realised her daughter was starting to get unsettled.
Speaking to KOIN6, she said: "She started getting a little upset and I started thinking, 'You know what? She didn't eat her dinner.
"I know her, when she gets overhungry or overthirsty, she really struggles because she can't tell us and she gets really frustrated."
Beegle does her best to anticipate her daughter's needs, which can be difficult as she doesn't eat food at room-temperature.
"I had no real way to bring hot snacks in my bag," she told ABC News.
The flight attendant said they could bring a hot sandwich, however it arrived cold.
Beegle asked the flight attendant if she could purchase something hot for her daughter from first class, to which he said no.
"I called him back over and I said to him, 'Please, help us out here,'" but he refused.
Frustrated, Beegle explained to the attendant that she has a child with special needs.
"I said, 'How about we wait for her to have a meltdown, she'll be crying and trying to scratch in frustration. I don't want her to get to that point.'"
The attendant brought some hot rice and jambalaya, which Juliette ate.
According to Beegle, about 25 minutes later there was an announcement saying the plane was making an emergency landing in Salt Lake City due to passenger with a "behaviour issue".
When paramedics and police approached the family, "They see this little teenager sitting there watching a video and they asked if there was an issue, and I said, 'No'," says Beegle.
"The paramedic said this was an over-reactive flight attendant and started shaking his head, and said 'We have real work to do' and left."
As the police began to leave, the pilot stepped out of the cockpit and spoke with them.
Approaching the family again, the police asked them to leave the plane.
"He said, 'The captain has asked us to ask you to step off the plane.'" Beegle said. "I said, 'She didn't do anything' ... But the captain said he's not comfortable flying on to Portland with [Juliette] on the plane."
"It just killed me for her to be treated that way," she said.
Video footage of the family being escorted from the plane, filmed by a passenger, has emerged online.
Traveller Jodi Smith was sitting a couple of rows behind the Beegle family and said the whole thing was ridiculous.
"This was just ridiculous... she was calm, she had done nothing," she said. "I've been on flights where kids have screamed for four hours and they've never diverted a flight," Smith told ABC News.
Beegle said she filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration and United Airlines.
"If they had autism training when I explained to him when I needed something hot, we could have found a workable solution together," she said. "But his whole view was, 'I'm trained to give a first class meal.' He didn't understand at all. He was disrespectful, he was rude."
United Airlines told ABC News in a statement: "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."
Beegle is also planning to file a lawsuit against United Airlines, "So no one else has to go through this."
.