A family’s Disney World holiday has ended on a sour note after during their return flight home they were escorted off the plane by airline security.
Dr. Donna Beegle and her family were on a flight from Houston to PDX when the plane re-routed and emergency landed due to a “passenger behaviour issue.” The passenger they were referring to was Miss Beegle’s 15-year-old daughter, Juliette.
Juliette has high- functioning autism, and is extremely picky about the food she consumes, as displayed in the video below:
Her mother says Juliette refused to eat the in-flight food, and so to avoid a meltdown she asked the flight attendant, before boarding, if they had any other hot food available.
The flight-attendant was only tending to passengers in first-class and told Miss Beegle she could not provide her daughter with different food options because she was flying economy class. Miss Beegle relented, but now thought it almost certain Juliette would have a meltdown.
30 minutes later, the flight crew announced the plane would be taking an emergency landing due to a ‘passenger behaviour issue.’ Juliette and her family were escorted off the plane by authorities.
Miss Beegle has explained how the incident unfolded. “The police said,’ Well, you know, we’re going to have to ask you to leave the plane.’ And I said, ‘I don’t understand why? There’s no issue. What is the problem?’ And he said, ‘Well, the captain doesn’t feel comfortable flying to Portland with your daughter on the plane.”
You can watch Juliette being escorted off the packed flight below:
In a statement to KATU News, a United Airlines spokesperson wrote, “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.”
Miss Beegle is currently in the process of filing a lawsuit against the airline. She hopes no other parent of a child with special-needs is forced to endure the embarassment of being publicly taken off a flight by authorities due to their child’s ‘differences.’
However, a fellow passenger has said the airline’s behaviour was entirely appropriate given that Juliette was “howling” all through the flight.
Passenger Marilyn Hedlund told KOIN 6 News, “She wasn’t put off the plane because she had autism, she was put off the plane because she was maybe proposing some kind of a threat, to (about) 170 other people at 36,000 feet, which doesn’t make anyone feel safe. What if she got crazy and got up and opened an exit door at 36,000 feet?”
Miss Beegle has responded to accusations saying her daughter is not a threat to anyone. “We have to define disruption” she said. “Is her getting agitated and making sounds a threat?”
The Federal Aviation Administration is currently investigating the case. Public sentiment, currently, seems to be that the airline responded too harshly.
