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.

yes - i was a risk manager for terrorism for high profile commercial clients in the city .

I’ve also experienced three IRA bomb attacks.

happy to doxx myself and provide proof to Mumsnet hq if any doubt.

‘Anything else is discrimination’

Discrimination is legal so long as it is a proportionate way of achieving a legitimate aim. A legitimate aim is ensuring the calm, wellbeing and comfort of flying passengers, many of whom will be anxious or nervous. DD would definitely be upset if somebody shouted bomb mid flight.

Having a disability doesn’t mean everyone around is forced to accommodate it, it just means it can be accommodated if reasonable to do so. This is far too sensitive to expect others to simply tolerate it, and there is too much that can go wrong in terms of the airlines responsibility.

I have zero respect for the father. He acted like an absolute prick. My parents were disabled, so I'm not ignorant to the concepts of accessibility but sometimes, you really do have to accept that not everything is possible. Alternative holiday destinations are available that don't involve airports.

So you should have enough insight to understand why the airline/authorities took the course of action they did, even if you don't agree with it.

years and years ago I went on holiday with my ex boyfriends family. As I’m going through security, my Exs brother shouts “check her for the cocaine!” And it was absolutely fucking horrific. They swabbed me (I’d never taken anything like that in my life at that point so no further searches) but I was so embarrassed. He was in his late 20s and autistic. I’m autistic and I wouldn’t have dared say anything like that in a security line. He just thought being a bellend was absolutely hilarious. Nothing to do with his autism. On that point, im so sick of neurodivergence being used as an excuse. I’m Autistic, ADHD, suffer from anxiety and post traumatic stress. If I’d have said bomb in a line, I’d have quite rightly been removed.

People are reacting like he made an actual threat or a hoax threat neither of which is true. This is a down to ignorance of Tourette’s syndrome and nothing to do with any actual threat.

THE POINT IS THAT NOBODY WAS ABLE TO TELL!!!! The people around him wouldn’t have known. The staff at the airport didn’t know and it was no doubt further thrown into confusion when the family started being rude to and getting in the faces of the airline staff. That aggression no doubt caused them to believe it was a real threat.

Tourette’s is quite different from those things you listed. It’s not an excuse, it’s the actual condition

Ffs Tourette’s is not the priority here.

He made a hoax threat regardless of intention.

^ I agree with this. I once took a load of teenagers to Italy and they were all warned about behaviour before we went etc and one started messing about with the self luggage check in and joking he had something illegal and I can tell you they did not find it amusing at all.

Threats have to be taken seriously. Adjustments can be made but not for everything.

I also wondered about the difference on the two flights/days, notimagain, but though I expect the airlines will know, passenger confidentiality means the rest of us don't, so some fill in the blanks with whatever suits their particular narrative

Some even seem to forget that it's reasonable adjustments which have to be made, and that what's reasonable will very according to circumstances, but I can't ever see a situation where people are able to demand whatever they want regardless of any other considerations at all

Its all down to whether the cabin crew can deal with mass hysteria at 30,000 feet

No he didn’t he had a tic it’s very very different. Hoax threats come with intent to disrupt and cause fear. There was no intent here. It’s very different.

and I’m not even bothering responding to the eejits who are still claiming ‘ no one knew he didn’t have a bomb’ while every scrap of video evidence shows the staff calmly stood around discussing it.

Weird. Because he managed to travel without doing this the next day!

. Hoax threats come with intent to disrupt and cause fear. There was no intent here. It’s very different

And of course unlike the staff at the gate or crew (neither of whom may even be empowered to assess intent on the spot - protocols and all that) , we now have had plenty of time to establish nil intent.

Your position is a reasonable one. The charity boss, however, is pressing for sufferers of Tourette's to be able to fly.

I think a lot of people here are being naive and thinking everyone is just like them, people are overlooking the fact that aircraft cabins are full of hundreds of different passengers. Not everyone will hear or understand an explanation, not everyone speaks English fluently, enough to understand an explanation about a passenger on board having Tourette’s but they may understand the word bomb, and some people may only hear the word “bomb” and panic. Some people are hard of hearing and won’t hear anyway, I know Iv been on a flight before and unable to hear much of what anyway is saying. There are other conditions such as dementia where someone could hear something and literally forget it 2 minutes later.. in fact I’ll list out all the reasons I can think of that would mean an announcement might be missed:

• Didn’t hear the announcement properly
• Wearing headphones/earbuds
• Sleeping
• Hard of hearing/deaf
• Poor aircraft speaker quality
• English not being their first language
• Not knowing what Tourette’s is
• Only hearing the word “bomb” and missing the explanation
• Anxiety/panic causing them to misinterpret things
• Dementia or memory problems
• Learning difficulties/cognitive impairments
• Children misunderstanding and panicking
• Elderly passengers becoming confused
• Distracted by children, phones, bags etc
• Sitting too far away to hear clearly
• Cabin noise/other passengers talking
• Mishearing or partially hearing the explanation
• Someone else relaying incomplete information (“someone said bomb”)
• Cultural differences around aviation/security fears
• Already nervous flyers reacting emotionally rather than rationally
• Passengers joining the situation midway and missing the context entirely

Even if crew explained the situation, there’s no guarantee everyone would hear it, remember it, or feel reassured by it.

Which they can.

So what about when a nervous passenger/passengers have taken the sedative posters here advise them to take when threads are started about being scared/terrified to fly. Why is it ok for them to risk countless lives around them when they’re comatose and the aircraft has to be evacuated in an emergency. Why is it ok for cabin crew to put their own lives at risk having to manoeuvre a dead weight out of a seat and down shute. What if the sedated/doped up passenger decides to try and get to the door the collapses in the aisle/gets disorientated/isn’t capable of following instructions and blocks it for everyone else behind them.

People are at way more risk from the passenger who shouldn’t have left home if they’re too scared to fly than anyone ever will be by a person who has Tourette’s.

And what about the obese having to turn sideways to walk up and down the aisle. How fast can they move in an emergency - how many people could be trapped behind them during an evacuation and end up BBQ’ed?

They’re not putting others at risk, just themselves. Don’t be so silly. I’ve never seen someone so sedated that they can’t be awoken on a flight.

That’s quite a masterful attempt at whataboutery…
Quite skilful, really. But no more convincing for that.

Sorry, a careless post on my part. She's arguing for understanding that what Tourette's sufferers say is involuntary and that decisions should be made accordingly ie in this case, the DE would have been able to fly.

But that’s nonsense and you know it.