Girl, 16, Kicked Off Plane for Coughing

[Connonym]

Is it just me or is this shit getting a bit out of control?

<snip> AP -- 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.

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

The flight attendants gave her water, and a doctor on the flight said she would be OK to make the 10-hour flight. But the captain returned the aircraft to the gate to drop off the girl and one of her teachers.

Rachel said she started crying when the captain told her to leave. She and the teacher finally made it home the next day.

Teacher Maile Kawamura, a chaperone for the spring break trip to New York and Washington, D.C., said she was shocked. The two didn't know what to do or where to stay, she said. They finally found accommodations in New York and bought clothes and toiletries.

Continental said in a statement that Collier was coughing "uncontrollably" on the plane Tuesday and that "the captain felt he was acting in the best interest of the passenger and other passengers on the flight."

Rachel's mother, Stephanie Collier, said Continental has agreed to reimburse her daughter's expenses incurred during the extra day, including the cost of the hotel.

http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8O6H53O0.html

[realisticphish]

1. i dunno

it sounds more like an asthma attack, or something, rather than just "coughing." If I were the captain, I would have been very worried about taking someone who just went through that into the air for 10 hours, isolated from medical care.

I think the airline should have helped them out, no doubt (as they seem to be doing after the fact) but it's not an entirely unreasonable thing to do.

[Kutjara]

2. I agree. Putting her off the flight was probably prudent.

The lower air pressure in a plane at cruising altitude could cause problems for someone with breathing problems. The lack of support on the ground, however, was not.

It is Continental Airlines, though, so I wouldn't have expected any more from them.

[Connonym]

3. Except that a doctor had said she was ok to fly

I can understand not wanting a medical emergency midair but if a doctor said she's ok to fly why is the captain over ruling that?

[northzax]

5. the captain is the law, and the responsibility

just because there was 'a doctor' on the plane, doesn't mean he needs to take that kind of chance. I mean who knows if it was a good doctor, or a dermatologist or something? the captain shouldn't take that kind of chance with someone's life.

also, if she had had another attack over, say, KAnsas, and they had to land and let her off, that takes time and money for the airline and the other passengers.

[Connonym]

7. To me, that's the thing. I think they're heady with the whole idea that they're the law

I'm not going to say there aren't valid reasons for that but it seems to me like some of them are on ego trips and need to be reined in.

[northzax]

9. true, but if she has a major attack

two hours off the coast and dies before getting to the ground- he's the one who flew a sick person to her death.

[Kutjara]

6. Some respiratory problems can only be diagnosed at a hospital.

The doctor would have given the girl a topical examination and probably listened to her lungs. Like any medical diagnosis, it is a balance of probabilities thing. The pilot might have felt that greater caution was appropriate. After all, the doctor wouldn't be the one getting sued if the child had a problem inflight.

[realisticphish]

12. he wasn't HER docter

he didn't know her med history, or have any way of doing anything other than looking at her. There are a lot of different kinds of doctors, on top of that.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. Since a doctor on the flight said she'd be ok,

I think the captain should have respected the professional's opinion.

[av8rdave]

8. Well, it's the Captain's call...

I've been in that situation. I do respect the professionals opinion. However, that professional doesn't know about what options are available should there be a medical emergency, paritucularly on a long overwater flight. He/she needs to respect the other professional (pilot's) opinion as well.

[realisticphish]

13. the thing is

the situation is one in which the pilot's opinion matters far more than the doctor's. The doctor isn't responsible for what happens on the plane, while the pilot is. The doc wasn't HER doc, he didn't have her med history, and they were gearing up for a 10 hour over water flight. I can understand the "I'd rather inconvenience the girl for a few days than have her die on my flight" attitude in this situation.

[deepthought42]

10. I had a coughing fit like that once when I had a cold

It was in school. That was embarrasing enough. I can only imagine what it would be like to get kicked off a plane for coughing. :(

Remind me not to sneeze next time I fly... :eyes:

[grasswire]

11. no one had a cough drop?

Geez

[Left Is Write]

14. I've had a lingering cough from a cold/sinus infection of a few weeks ago.

Occasionally, I have a coughing fit so bad I can't control it and just kind of have to wait it out. Twice I've coughed hard enough to throw up.

I do not have asthma or pneumonia. Usually drinking some water will help me through it. This lingering cold cough has been going around the area, so I'm not even unusual.

I'd be pretty pissed if I were kicked off an airplane because of it.