Boy with Tourette’s denied boarding after bomb remark

[TamanTun]

I was just thinking about the news article about the 13 year old boy who was denied boarding after shouted ‘bomb’ at the gate. His parents had warned the airline in advance, he had his diagnosis letter on him and was wearing a sunflower lanyard. Imagine a world where others would understand and be supportive in a case like this rather than what happened. The family had done everything they could to avoid something like this but yet it did happen. Why can we all not be more accepting? I suppose it comes with educating others and does depend on the situation.

I hope you’re including nervous flyers in that. You know the ones who take a sedative to get through the flight and wouldn’t be able to help themselves in an emergency and cause a hindrance to everyone else on board.

Exactly. It’s not going to happen.

But having someone shout that on a plane could cause absolute chaos.

I wouldn’t. You have no idea whether they’re telling the truth or not.

A real bomber would probably stay silent so any one of the passengers who doesn’t say anything about having a bomb could in fact have one (except the scanners would pick it up but let’s be hypothetical). Would you board anyway?

Oh give over. You have no idea what they’d do. They may well want to inflict mass panic on the plane.

I’m sorry but inclusion doesn’t go so far as to make everyone else uncomfortable. It’s not how it works.

I wonder why airlines are so strict with passengers who joke about having guns and bombs? Actually the police don’t tend to find it funny either. Or the CPS.

It turns out that it is actually a breach of the law if you’re over 10 years old. This guy was prosecuted for ‘communicating false information contrary to the Criminal Law Act’ for joking he had a bomb in his luggage at Birmingham International Airport in 2012.

Afterwards, Chief Inspector John White, from the airport police unit, said: "A national policy to deal with disruptive passengers is now in place and this shows that we will deal with any claims of this nature in a robust way."

https://www.business-live.co.uk/economic-development/man-joked-bomb-luggage-3980391?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

And yet in this case, the airline was additionally expected to manage the parents’ behaviour with their phone positioned in the staff member’s face and their unhelpfully raised voices, on top of its existing duties to other passengers. The parents, not the boy, and not the airline, caused unnecessary and avoidable disruption when the parents could and should have been calmer for their son’s sake at least.

So where does it all end? When do the rights of one person end and the rights of everyone else start? I am all in favour of equal rights for all but at what stage do we say, actually this is not a good idea?

@MyAutumnCrow

You may well know thid but FWIW and without going deeply into this one of the possible issues here is that the crew/gate staff may well not be in a position or even have the authority to make a full and considered judgement about whether to take the comments about a bomb as being credible or not...

BTW BA social media policy for passengers changed not long ago and filming staff, certainly without permission, is a breach of terms of carriage, so the parents' actions may not have helped.

TBH there's.often three sides to acounts of disputes like this, the airline staff's, the passenger's, and somewhere in the middle the reality.

God knows. This one seems like such a weird hill to die on too, Mumsnet was tying itself in knots back during the baftas trying to justify the guy that shouted such offensive words. It’s just bizarre

Also there are some people who are idiotic enough to shout 'bomb' when they don't have a mental health problem. Surely anyone can shout what they want and claim they have Tourettes these days.

It’s Tourette’s an INVOLUNTARY neurological tic. He wasn’t making a joke.

He had medical evidence.

Oh yes I'm sure the boy had a medical diagnosis. I was meaning that anybody else may use that as an excuse for saying whatever they want. Not just on a flight but anywhere.

You’re a pilot, aren’t you,@notimagain? We’ve chatted on other threads from time to time about various topics, including the BA photography rule.

So, it’s the case that processes kick in much higher up than gate managers etc when the word ‘bomb’ is heard, even as a likely ‘joke’, and has done for decades?

It’s clearly been discussed in Parliament, hence the act of parliament; thus it’s a bit more than a customer service issue to clear up airside.

Also, how far would captain’s discretion go in these sorts of circumstances (joke or tic), especially with potentially volatile parents and worried passengers? (I’d be more concerned about the behaviour of the parents than the boy tbh. I can’t stand the ‘phone out filming’ demeanour in confined spaces that is so disruptive to gate staff and flight attendants and invasive of other passengers’ privacy.)

In a form /format that meant the crew/gate staff /others potentially involved would recognise as legit and would give them a very very high degree of confidence that there wasn't a bomb?

This is a classic aviation event where the Monday or whatever day Quarterbacks have the benefit of a massive amount of hindsight and almost unlimited time to pick holes and then make a decision - which is made even easier for them by the fact they have little to no skin in the game.

To me it sounds like it was not a great series of events but from the crew/staff POV they may have been dealing with a passenger behaving in a manner that in their opinion was causing or going to cause disruption and worse of all the B word got thrown in.....

.....and unlike posters here crew and other staff involved will have had to make a promptish decision.

Sensible as always ...

The difficulty with verbal tics is they can become harder and harder to suppress especially if the focus is not saying a particular word or phrase. That’s precisely why the words can in some individuals be so very offensive. Poor young man how utterly awful for him.

The CEO of Tourettes Action has made the following statement regarding the incident:

A statement from our CEO Emma McNally
“Tourette syndrome remains one of the most stigmatised and misunderstood conditions, and that needs to change.
This family experienced something no one should ever have to go through. After doing everything right, including making the airport aware of their son’s disability, booking assistance, passing through security, and reaching the gate, they were refused boarding because their son involuntarily shouted that he had a bomb.
This was not behaviour. It was not intent. It was not choice. It was an involuntary tic. It was part of his disability. It was a symptom of his Tourette’s. And yet, they were not allowed to fly.
When I heard the news, I felt completely heartbroken for this family. Air travel can already be highly stressful, particularly for families managing a disability, and they should not have had to endure this.
However, I do not believe this should be about blame or shame. The staff involved were doing what they believed was the right thing at the time. This decision is unlikely to have been made by one individual alone, but rather through existing protocols and processes. I believe the situation arose not from malice, but from a lack of understanding and awareness of Tourette syndrome.
This is why it’s important that we look beyond this single incident. While it may be easy to place blame at the door of British Airways, the reality is that this issue runs much deeper. The protocols followed across the aviation industry are not currently inclusive enough for people with Tourette syndrome and that must change.
I want this to be a moment for progress and change.
I hope that British Airways will take this opportunity to put things right. I hope they will:

1. Offer a sincere apology to the family
2. Commit to meaningful Tourette syndrome awareness training for their staff

More broadly, we need to see a review of aviation protocols to ensure they are inclusive, informed, and able to appropriately support passengers with conditions like Tourette’s. Sadly, situations like this are not rare. Too often, Tourette’s is the condition left behind when it comes to true inclusion. The reality is simple, tics are involuntary. They are not beliefs. They are not intent. They are not a choice. That is why our campaign this year is #NoChoice. We must work to ensure situations like this do not happen again. The key to that is education. At Tourettes Action, we work with organisations to build understanding, confidence, and inclusion. Our Tourette’s Friendly Scheme helps create environments where people with Tourette’s feel safe, respected, and understood. My hope is that something positive can come from this, something that drives meaningful change, and ensures no other family has to go through the same experience. It’s time for all airlines and the wider aviation industry, to commit to becoming truly Tourette’s friendly.”

There is obviously a lot of ignorance and misunderstanding regarding Tourette’s. It might be an idea for some posters on this thread to educate themselves before typing absolute nonsense.

Yes. Hence he wasn’t arrested or detained .

Ok - fair

Irrelevant. The safety of 350 other passengers comes first.

How is a boy tic-ing affecting their safety? Anxiety and panic I get - but this could have been mitigated by the airline informing passengers that there was no actual bomb. All this talk about safety makes it sound like there was an actual threat.

@LynetteScavo

Thanks for posting the statement from the CEO of Tourettes Action...overall comes over as very balanced.

Given the context it's going to be interesting to see what protocols across the aviation industry can be changed...

So a thirteen year old boy with an involuntary tic poses a threat to airline passengers ? It might raise anxiety levels in some nervous passengers but then so could any number of triggers for those passengers. A woman I know has CPTSD and one of her triggers is Tom and Jerry ( the older lady chasing them with brooms). A kid next to her with a tom and Jerry comic could in theory trigger but she had to manage that not get the child removed or Its comic.

they knew he absolutely did not have a bomb. They knew he had a confirmed medical diagnosis of Tourette’s. They should know by now if they didn’t already that those tics are no more controllable than blinking. He flew with a different airline with no issue two days later. This very much is looking like a massive apology from BA at the very minimum is due.

also I assume their return flights are with ba and as they didn’t make the outbound this could get even messier before it concludes.

Yes! Imagine 300 people panicking on board an airplane in the current political climate