joshwex90

Senior class trip takes huge detour when students are kicked off pane - CNN

Basically, some students were disruptive and the whole group was kicked off. I personally know some of the students and chaperons. To me, this stinks of collective punishment. On the other hand, I doubt they were targeted for being Jewish - this is a flight from NYC on a major airline. I don't see a WN FA targeting Jewish groups in a such a public way

nelsoji

Agree. This doesn't appear on the surface to be anything other than FA's enforcing rules. This is now the 3rd story in 2 days I have read about FA's being aggressive or over aggressive with cell phone responses. Someone said it in another thread - FAA likely came down hard on airlines and there is now a very strict policy in place.

That said - Southwest likely going to get in trouble for kicking off all of them unless they can show they had a legitimate safety concern. If 10 of the 101 were acting up - that is a very large punishment because you happen to have graduated with a few idiots

tmontemb

The issue is that they were chaperoned on a school sanctioned trip. Splitting up the group would have meant also pulling off chaperones to accompany those split up. Then you have to kick off chaperones that weren't misbehaving to deal with the kids that were.

I think the mentality was get them all off, let them get rebooked and split up in the airport accordingly and get the current flight up in the air, which is what happened.

Collective punishment yes, but the alternative is at best a gray area.

In all honesty, why wouldn't they bring in the LEOs? Isn't that standard procedure when those will not listen to FAs? Not saying anyone should have been detained by any means, but just the appearance probably would have straightened everyone up quite quickly and then they would be on their way.

Not a fan that they went straight for the race card, but it seems many were punished because of the actions of their peers.

soccerref750

It was an FL FA, but that's neither here nor there. I think it's a lot more likely that they were targeted for being a large group of teenagers by a few FA's who hadn't yet had their coffee (was apparently very early morning). No reason to kick 100 people off a plane for the actions of a subset of the group. I hope they get some compensation for their trouble.

Hokies82

Timeout. The FA's did not make the decision to throw them off the plane, the captain had to make that decision. If he wanted to he could have said close the door we are leaving. Although there are conflicting stories, the captain made the call. Let's not make this more news worthy than its worth.

BTW I have been on enough flights where the crew put up with more than they should have and in the case they called the groups bluff. Chaperones and students need to rtake responsibility for their action.

craz

Pretty much how I see it, most of the kids that go to that school are brats and spoiled. I totally can see a kid in row 2 texting their friend in row 20 and expecting to continue to do so the whole flight.I can see where a # (not all) will ignore what an FA will tell them they can or cant do, and maybe even talk back to the FA and say something like "Its none of your biz what I do and how I do it".

Had the plane actually taken off it probably would have returned to LGA due to non-compliance once in the air by members of the group

Since it seems it was a trip to an amusement park,I dont get why they just didnt pay Six Flags in NJ to open the park for them for the day, or any other park thats a bus drive from NYC.

dw

Regardless of what happened.... I can't imagine what it would be like to be on an early morning flight with 100+ (likely quite loud) high school seniors!

N830MH

It's unacceptable! Those senior student that cannot talks on cell phone during in-flight. They have turn it off. They should listen to the flight crew instruction. They did not followed the rules. They have listen to the flight crew.

If you don't behave. The teacher will notify the parents immediately. You will not able flying today. You have respect with FA & captain as well. You are not allowed to talk on cell phone. You have turn it off.

RockyMtnHigh

Regardless of what happened, the pilot is the boss. Once aboard the aircraft the pax must comply with her/his orders. There can be no exceptions to this rule, you don't get a vote on an aircraft. Great lesson for the kids and their chaperones.

Good for the crew, no one wants to spend 90 minutes on an airplane with one, ten or 100 rowdy high school kids.

Of course, it's easy to say they were discriminated against because of their religion. If not religion there would be some other reason to divert attention from their disruptive behavior and the crew's excellent performance.

Often1

Aircraft aren't school busses. They can't just pull off to the side of the road and toss an unruly kid. The decision gets made prior to the push or it's too late (or the aircraft returns to the gate / diverts and so on).

The decision to punt the kids was made by the Captain, not the FA's. These decisions aren't made lightly and are made knowing that there will be scrutiny after the fact by the employer, the media and others.

To me this is pretty simple. If you can't follow simple rules, don't travel.

InkUnderNails

Who wants to agree with me that we do not have the whole story?

There is but one paragraph from the story that gives the WN side. The rest is all from the side of those that were asked to leave.

The WN statement simply says:

That is three violations from multiple perpetrators. They were probably thinking what it was going to be like when they were in the air and could do nothing about it.

Everything else is from the group. I picked out some interesting tidbits, to me anyway:

Is there any WN or AirTran flight that leaves at 4 a.m. from New York?

Assuming they made it past the TSA, that was 2 for 2 that day.

Uh, no. I have traveled with many school groups and sports teams. How behaved should kids be? Behaved enough that they do not get thrown off flights.

Y..

Obviously, they weren't playing "go fish" in their seats. They were making enough of a ruckus to get them booted from a plane. My son who just graduated can't stand to be around some kids his own age. He says they can just be spoiled brats. Perhaps this was an example of that?

If the captain booted them, they were definitely 'misbehaving'. What were the chaperon's doing is what I wonder. Why weren't they enforcing the airlines rules? Oh well, no fun for them I guess.

Nuff said...

joshwex90

The question in my mind isn't about kicking off unruly pax, but the whole group. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. They could've just thrown off the ruly kids; it's not their responsibility whether or not a chaperon is with them, and if one chaperon wants to join them, great.

plagwate

As a former school bus driver, I can assure you drivers do not have the option of simply tossing an unruly kid off along the side of the road.

chicagodesi

Why is religion even bought up in the first place? Rules are rules and it doesn't matter who or what you are, you do not follow the rules, you get kicked off. No need to whine and play the pity me i am the victim card. Teens will be teens, no matter what race or religion you are. If it was 100 high school kids from a Muslim school, would they get the same sympathy?