Mother with autistic 2 year old removed from flight

Jun 26 2008

The case of a mother and her autistic son who were removed from a flight in the United States serves to highlight the problems faced by carers of those with behavioural disorders as well as the plight of organisations catering for the general public.

The mother and son were on an American Eagle flight to New Jersey to visit relatives when the incident took place.

The flight was forced to return to the airport shortly after it began its taxi to the runway apparently because of the disruptive behaviour of the 2 and a half year old autistic boy.

Janice Farrell says her son Jarrett found it hard to settle because he was constantly badgered by the flight attendant who repeatedly tugged at his seatbelt to make it tighter and when he continued to wriggle and tried to get out of his seatbelt the flight attendant reprimanded him and yelled at him.

The situation was apparently exacerbated by Ms Farrells refusal to place a bag on her lap, which contained items that would help calm her son, in the overhead locker.

The situation escalated to the point where the pilot made an appearance in the cabin and ordered the boy to behave, the boy responded by rolling around on the floor.

Then came an announcement that there was an uncontrollable child on the plane and the pilot said he was returning to the terminal - both mother and child were then then escorted off the aircraft.

Ms Farrell says had the airline crew been more understanding there would not have been a problem and has vowed to never again travel with American Airlines, who own American Eagle.

A spokesman for American Airlines, the parent company of American Eagle, say the mother and her child were escorted off the plane because the mother would not comply with FAA regulations and stow her bag in the overhead compartment and the issue with the child simply exacerbated the situation.

The scenario is interesting because it is easy to see the problem from both the parent's and the airline's viewpoint and difficult to understand how such situations might be avoided.

While alerting an airline that you are travelling with a child with problems might make avoid such a scenario, most parents might be reluctant to do so as there is no guarantee what response such an alert might provoke.

With 1 in every 160 children now estimated to suffer from some form of autistic disorder, airlines and other travel organisations might need to develop a policies and strategies to help them deal with such children, if they have not already done so.