Family Says Airline Left Them Stranded At Airport

POSTED: 10:30 am PDT July 6, 2008
UPDATED: 11:01 am PDT July 6, 2008


SEATAC, Wash. -- A woman with two disabled children said her family was left stranded by Southwest Airlines on their way to Seattle.

Wendy Slaughter was traveling with her four children and her five-months pregnant sister Friday on a Southwest Airlines flight from Detroit to Seattle.

One of Slaughter’s children has autism and she also has a daughter with cerebral palsy.

When the family landed in Phoenix they were met at the gate by police officers, detained and told they were too disruptive to get on their connecting flight to Seattle, Slaughter said.

Slaughter said they were left stranded at the Phoenix airport with no money and no lodging.

This was the first flight for the children. Slaughter admitted the children were loud and kept getting up and walking around the plane.

“The children were out of control on the flight you know, they were restless, excited and worked up and they are kids,” said Slaughter.

The family said flight attendants asked them to quiet the children twice, but they didn’t expect to be booted off the flight

“I am furious about it. I can’t believe they could do something like that and then leave us completely stranded with no money no way to get anywhere,” Slaughter said.

Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Christi Day told KIRO-7:

"They were being disruptive and unruly on the plane, and for the safety of our customers and the flight crew, we decided to not allow them to travel on to Seattle at that time. Typically if it's a threatening behavior, it's not safe to travel 30,000 feet in the air in a contained environment."

The family said police officers bought them food and Motel 6 donated a hotel room for the night.

The children’s grandmother said she had to pay $2,000 to book last-minute tickets on Alaska Airlines. They said they didn’t have any problems on that three-hour flight.

The family said they want Southwest Airlines to compensate them and give a public apology.

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Absolutely not! Seriously, who is to judge what is *loud*? And leaving them stranded in an unfriendly city with no money, after they already paid for their tickets halfway? What is the airline STUPID? Do they think that they aren't going to get there rear ends sued by a family with no where to turn?

*Disruptive and Unruly*? So, what they were talking in *normal* kids voices and ACTING like kids? I fail to see how children in seatbelts on a plane, NOT in the cabin with the Pilot would be *threatening*

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Shannon

I just had to add that I noticed that there was NO mention of other clients complaining. And POLICE to stop them?? I'm surprised that SWA would do this, we've flown with them before and had no problems, and my dh's uncle works for them and they've never had any troubles. Sad state of affairs, IMO.

ETA:
ROFL...I'm a tad opinionated today Been quite the week here..

YIKES! That is horrible and it freaks me out as we're flying with Kenzie on Southwest from Fl to OR in Aug!!

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Ok, I did reread the article, and it did say that the kids were up and moving on the plane, I can see how *that* could be dangerous, BUT you cannot leave someone stranded who paid for their tickets, in an unknowns city. They should have asked that the kids remain seated, if that was the case, or offer to give them another flight after the kids had settled down, IMO.


Lisa, I've flown 2 times with babies/toddlers and never had any problems. Both of those flights were 2hours and under, with SWA! but I didn't forsee any issues, even had we been on the plane for longer. I just brought some toys and nursed baby going up and down(to relieve pressure on their ears)

Thanks. We're hoping she's still has the same paci addiction then as she does now! Hahah!

Who the heck agreed that this was OK? It is HARD to conatin any kid in a confined space- not to mention one with autism! YIKES!

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That's what I was thinking Lisa. I have worked with children with autism for a lot of years, as well as having a BIL who is high functioning Autism(who stayed with us often before we moved) and sometimes there isn't ANYTHING you can do, you have to let them get *over it* on their own. Was it just an unthought whim? Or was it planned, is it in their *rule book*??

Four kids, two adults and the two adults could not keep these kids occupied and under control enough on the plane? I dunno... I have a hard time with this. If you watch the video, they show the autistic boy and they show the CP little girl as well. It seems that these kids needed to have something in which to occupy their time, to keep them busy. Yes, it's gotta be a hard thing to control 4 kids, but come on.

I was on a Red Eye flight from Seattle to Houston and then from Houston to San Jose, Costa Rica and we had 2 1/2 year old twins on BOTH flights. These two kids were so out of control, screaming and running around the whole time. I think their grandparents were trying to control them more than their parents were. All the parents were doing was telling them to "shutup!" "knock it off!" I think I wanted to smack the parents more than the kids.

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