Continental Airlines in big heap of trouble

[zaphodbeeblebrox 0]

Apparently, Continental Airlines feels it is immune from U.S. anti-discrimination laws (i.e., the Americans with Disabilities Act). These events are going to spark a big lawsuit which Continental will have to settle. I've only flown Continental to Guam, but I can tell you, that I will never fly them again.

 

An airline pilot on Tuesday ordered a 16-year-old Kalani High School student pulled off an East Coast flight after a coughing fit. Rachel Collier was on a spring break trip with her school. The girl's classmates were scheduled to return home to Honolulu on Tuesday night, but Collier remained on the East Coast. Collier was having a great spring break on a school trip to New York and Washington, her mother said. The trip was her first without her parents.

 

The fun turned into fear when she was kicked off a Continental Airlines flight headed for home.

 

"The police were called. The ambulance, the paramedics were called. She had fallen asleep in her seat and woke up coughing and a whole bunch of people standing around her, and was asked to leave the plane," Collier's mother, Stephanie, said. Teacher Maile Kawamura said a doctor traveling on the plane checked Rachel Collier and said she was fine, had no fever and did not pose a threat to other passengers.

 

Despite that, the family was told, the pilot insisted Collier leave the plane.

 

"Upon boarding the plane was asked to leave by the pilot because she had a little bit of a coughing spell," Stephanie Collier said.

 

Rachel Collier and her teacher were left to find their own hotel for the night and had to buy clothes and toothbrushes because their luggage was already on the plane.

 

"I'm frustrated. I'm really, really frustrated. Why they would do that, especially with two teachers escorting 40 children across the United States, and for the pilot to make that kind of decision," Stephanie Collier said.

 

A day before the incident, 272 passengers aboard a Continental flight from Hong Kong were detained in Newark amid fears of bird flu.

 

Centers for Disease Control officials quickly determined some passengers had a "seasonal flu."

 

KITV's calls to Continental were not immediately returned.

 

Stephanie Collier said she spoke with someone at Continental who said the matter would be dealt with internally. Rachel Collier and her teacher are scheduled to return to Hawaii on Wednesday evening.

Edited March 28, 2007 by zaphodbeeblebrox

[Tengotodo 52]

Apparently, Continental Airlines feels it is immune from U.S. anti-discrimination laws (i.e., the Americans with Disabilities Act). These events are going to spark a big lawsuit which Continental will have to settle. I've only flown Continental to Guam, but I can tell you, that I will never fly them again.

 

"Some passengers had a seasonal flu"? The severity of the "coughing bout" is not explained in the article (and I'm not sure it makes a difference). All I know is that the Pilot is most likely aware and/or trained to recognize symptoms of infection/disease. I say fuck off the plane and get a free ticket anywhere you want to go NEXT TRIP! ME SO SORRY BITCH.

[upena 2]

I get to fly Continental from Hawaii to Guam in about 2 weeks - not looking forward to it.

[MrMango 664]

I get to fly Continental from Hawaii to Guam in about 2 weeks - not looking forward to it.

I'll bet that you paid far more to to Guam than to Bangkok -

[Bullfrog 2,224]

Rachel Collier and her teacher were left to find their own hotel for the night and had to buy clothes and toothbrushes because their luggage was already on the plane.

 

 

Well now we have a new terrorist tactic...stick a bomb in a suitcase, check it in.......get a coughing fit and leave the plane!!!!

[Regyai 410]

anti-discrimination........

 

 

Doubt it

 

 

On board any aircraft the arbiter of who gets to be on board is none other than the Captain

 

If he decides someone is a risk to his flight...tis up to him

 

 

no one else

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

[Sailfast 503]

If the pilot thought there was a risk of a medical crisis on board the plane he has every right to refuse her service. My thoughts are that he was afraid for the girls safety. Imagine if it got to the point that she needed medical attention? This would require an emergency landing and perhaps a crisis on board that the crew was not prepared to handle as well as a hospital.

 

 

 

That being said, Continental probably should have handled it better.

 

 

 

It's all fun and games till your flight to LOS is diverted to EastBumfuck Ohio cuz someone has a nose bleed that won't stop.

 

 

 

Sailfast

[zaphodbeeblebrox 0]

anti-discrimination........

Doubt it

On board any aircraft the arbiter of who gets to be on board is none other than the Captain

 

If he decides someone is a risk to his flight...tis up to him

no one else

.

 

Regyai: the United States has laws against discrimination with respect to public transportation. It has to do with the days in which African-Americans were forced to sit in the back of city buses. A physician was on board this flight who determined that the 16 year old student was not ill, and did not pose a threat to others, but merely had a coughing fit. What was the pilot thinking? In defending this case, Continental will have to prove both that the girl was interfering with the flight and that Continental could not make a "reasonable accomodation" for her medical condition. Fat chance!

 

A Kalani High School student returned to the islands on Wednesday night after a coughing spell got her kicked off a Continental Airlines flight from Newark, N.J., to Honolulu on Tuesday. Rachel Collier, 16, and her teacher arrived in Honolulu tired, but relieved to be home.

 

Collier was on a spring break excursion to Washington and New York with 39 Kalani High School students and two teachers. They were on their way home on Tuesday, taxiing at a Newark airport, when Collier fell asleep. "I woke up, and I was coughing, and I think I got into a panic because I couldn't breathe," Collier said.

 

A doctor onboard checked Collier and cleared her for the 10-hour trip because she had no fever. However, the pilot asked Collier to leave the plane for safety reasons. "The captain said I had to get off the plane and I started crying," Collier said.

 

"I was shocked, I was panicked because I didn't know what we were going to do," teacher Maile Kawamura said. Kawamura stayed back with Collier, while the rest of the group flew home on the Continental flight.

"They didn't offer us a ride. They didn't offer us even how to get out of the airport," Kawamura said.

Kawamura and Collier took awhile to find accommodations near Times Square as well as clothing and toiletries. They waited for their rescheduled flight on Wednesday afternoon.

 

Continental released a statement saying the passenger was "coughing uncontrollably," and that the "captain has the final authority." They said the pilot "felt he was acting in the best interest of the passenger and other passengers on the flight."

[player 1]

This is making bigger news on the board then it did in the local Hawaii media (one night and out, here).

 

It's probably a 12 hour direct flight from Newark to Honolulu and I don't know about you, but I would

not want to sit by someone that is coughing like she apparently was, but it happens. The pilot does have the final say.

 

Can't see any discrimination in this case, he just made a cautious decision that he thought was best for the young lady and rest of the passengers on board. Now if they could only do something about crying babies on long flights (ear plugs).

 

That said, Continential did not handle the situation real smooth and will probably pay for it one way or the other.

[Regyai 410]

Regyai: the United States has laws against discrimination with respect to public transportation. It has to do with the days in which African-Americans were forced to sit in the back of city buses. A physician was on board this flight who determined that the 16 year old student was not ill, and did not pose a threat to others, but merely had a coughing fit. What was the pilot thinking? In defending this case, Continental will have to prove both that the girl was interfering with the flight and that Continental could not make a "reasonable accomodation" for her medical condition. Fat chance!

 

 

 

Be that as it may (I am no legal expert....) but I'll hazard that International Air Law supercedes your Cottonpickers Seating Arrangements Act from way back when.

 

 

 

.

[Rengoh 0]

Be that as it may (I am no legal expert....) but I'll hazard that International Air Law supercedes your Cottonpickers Seating Arrangements Act from way back when.

.

Wow! How did that get by the "racist in the room" filter?

 

The ADA does not apply to someone who is just sick, or thought to be sick. It applies to persons with disabilities, disability defined by the Courts.

 

What court be willing to set a precedent that "coughing" is a disability? Same court, I supect, that would rule as a disability "being drunk and stupid," and we see them denied all the time.

 

No big news here, happens all the time, with the reporter able to twist it into a great topical (Spring Break) human interest story.

 

Another beer, another topic, pleeeeez

[Jimmybb 0]

Well, here is my take on this situation. I returned two weeks ago from my last visit to LOS, and what struck me odd is that it always seems that I am on the flight where there is seemingly endless sneezing, coughing, excessive snoring, people sucking their teeth after meals (rather than using the supplied toothpick) for oral cleaning, and various other sundry annoying things. I am generally very easy going, pretty laid back with respect to air travel as well, but this time I would have liked to have seen every wheezing, sneezing passenger taken off the plane so that those not similiarly afflicted could travel in peace.

 

In the future maybe I simply need to take two Ambien and a couple of cocktails so that I can go into a semi-coma and just chill out for the long flight.

 

Rgds, Jimmy

[ruskiehat 0]

Continental like the rest of all other US airlines are fucking crap. They all have shit biz lounges and their service suck. Inflight entertainment is watching the old grannies prading around as air hostessess serve you food and drink without spilling it all over the bloody place.

[Tengotodo 52]

In the future maybe I simply need to take two Ambien and a couple of cocktails so that I can go into a semi-coma and just chill out for the long flight.

 

Rgds, Jimmy

 

Ummmm, yeah, that's what I do.....