Posted on 06/05/2013 4:04:16 AM PDT by servo1969
A group of about 100 high school students traveling from New York to Atlanta were thrown off a flight, along with their chaperones, after the pilot and crew lost patience with some kids who wouldn't sit down and put away their cellphones.
The teenagers, all seniors at the Yeshiva of Flatbush, in Brooklyn, were ordered off the AirTran flight around 6 a.m. Monday as it sat at a gate at LaGuardia Airport.
AirTran's parent company, Southwest Airlines, said in a statement that flight attendants asked passengers several times to take their seats and put their mobile devices away. The airline said that when some didn't comply, the captain repeated the request. When that didn't work, either, the whole group of students was ordered to disembark for safety reasons, the airline said.
The flight was delayed for about 45 minutes while the students filed out of the Boeing 737, which seats about 137 people, leaving the plane mostly empty.
Rabbi Seth Linfield, executive director at Yeshiva of Flatbush, said that administrators were still looking into the matter Tuesday, but that he believed adults on the trip who said the students weren't behaving that badly.
"Preliminarily, it does not appear that the action taken by the flight crew was justified," he said in a statement.
Asked whether he thought 100 teenagers were too many to keep in order on a flight, Linfield said the school has taken similar-size groups before without any problems.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Thanks for confirming my observation. And for your rich contributions to the thread.
Oy vey!
What are you guys on about?
I love Southwest Airlines. Good move.
I fly almost every week. When the door closes, the crew and pilot are in charge - of everything, including the safety of ALL 137 (or 143) passengers.
We always preferred to travel with Southwest. They were known in certain circles as having the highest concentration of former and retired Air Force pilots who preferred their business practice which is quite different from the others.
The lawyers involved will probably be disappointed to find that the pilots have an iron clad rules and regs case.
100 adult sized kids can go bad quickly.
They chose wimpy chaperons.
That unfortunate pilot picked a bad week to stop sniffing glue.
As a noo yawkah, let me say, I think you should.
I hate their herd seating. But I like a lot of other things about SW. I prefer Delta.
lol
“but that he believed adults on the trip who said the students weren’t behaving that badly.”
They were misbehaving...just not that badly. Apparently, the pilot disagreed.
My first thought when I read this was that it probably says more about the school than the airline.
I prefer assigned seats and the one-hop to my usual destination, neither of which SW has.
But for safety and efficiency SW. Plus their short notice fares.
I see.
I guess that's why no one from outside the United States ever visits New York City.
Apparently I offended this turkey in a previous thread, and he just can’t keep from violating the FR rules and continues the thread stalking.
I know the type. The rules are for other people, not them.
I'm confused...AirTran threw the kids off the plane. How was that a reward? Was it because they were still on the ground when they did it?
They put them on other flights, CL, rather than voiding their tickets. And they also gave them vouchers for a free flight in the future.
I would also point out that many of these teens pulled the victim card and blamed Southwest for being anti-Semitic (nice lashon hara guys), rather than taking responsibility for their own actions.
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