Teen booted off plane for coughing

Teen booted off plane for coughing

seattletimes.nwsource.com

HONOLULU — A 16-year-old girl who caught a cold during a school trip to New York was kicked off her flight home because she was coughing.

Rachel Collier was removed from the Continental Airlines plane as it was about to leave Newark, N.J., for Honolulu earlier this week. She had fallen asleep after boarding the plane with about three dozen classmates and woke up coughing and gasping for breath as it was about to take off.

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What's next, can I get kicked off a plane for having a bad haircut? A doctor said she was fine to travel yet the pilot says no and strands her and a teacher in New York? A pilot is ultimately responsible for his passengers, but his girl was not a threat. Maybe annoying, but not a threat.

seattletimes.nwsource.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Geez, this is rediculous! I just keep seeng this kind of nonsense going on. Like you said, whats next? No doubt she had to stand in line for 2 hours just waiting to get on the plane int he first place. If i was her id have at least raised hell, then at least she would have been thrown off for a good reason LOL

Actually the article goes on to say that she couldn't catch her breath.

"Everyone was looking at me," she said. "I couldn't talk because I lost my voice coughing so much. I was panicking."

Who knows how much "panicking" was going on. Maybe this is why she was told to get off?

Absolutely she should have put up a fight! If she had died she would have scored an upgrade to first class!

I dunno... it does seem a bit extreme, but it looks more like the captain was being extra cautious. He could have been considering the risk of a mid-flight medical emergency or the possibility that her constant aerosol spray of phlemn into the air would get everyone else sick.

Just some aspects to think about before trying to read his mind.

She couldn't breathe. Therefore it would have been WRONG to take off with her on the airplane.

Also ... I don't want to be stuck on an airplane for hours upon hours breathing germs from someone who is sick. Selfish? Maybe. But that's the way it is.

BTW ... when people are stuffed up with headcolds they aren't supposed to be flying. It's bad for their ear drums.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
She couldn't breathe. Therefore it would have been WRONG to take off with her on the airplane.

Also ... I don't want to be stuck on an airplane for hours upon hours breathing germs from someone who is sick. Selfish? Maybe. But that's the way it is.

Right on FF. I agree, it would have been wrong to take off if she was in some sort of respiratory distress.

I agree. One - I wouldn't want to be stuck with a person like that all flight getting germs either.

And two - Thousands of feet in the sky isn't the best place to not be able to catch your breath.


The pilot was just doing things in the best interest of everybody, really.

Originally posted by enjoies05
I agree. One - I wouldn't want to be stuck with a person like that all flight getting germs either.

And two - Thousands of feet in the sky isn't the best place to not be able to catch your breath.


The pilot was just doing things in the best interest of everybody, really.

Yeah I agree, thousands of feet in the air is not the best place to be unable to catch your breath.

The captain made the right decision in this case IMO. He's responsible for the safety and comfort of all the passengers on the plane. I've heard of a lot of cases where passengers with any sort of respiratory problems were removed from flights, even one where a flight attendant was removed for being too old.