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.

Do you honestly think everyone pays attention to the announcements on a flight? I always do personally but feel like I'm in a minority. Add to that the number of passengers who will have been drinking pre flight and those who are stressed/nervous about flying and it's a potentially volatile situation. If he was my child I'd be terrified of him being attacked by a have a go hero if he shouted like that mid flight. Again, full sympathies to them but not an easily managed situation.

Clearly not, given that another airline took him without difficulty.

Can you explain this logic? How does someone faking a Tourette’s diagnosis so that they can freely shout ‘bomb’ equate to actually bringing a bomb on board (through security may I add) and killing people? If you were actually planning on detonating a bomb on board a plane you wouldn’t be shouting about it beforehand…

Perhaps consider Englands lovely shores for a holiday? No need for a plane!

I suspect denied boarding and a night to reflect with the parents possibly had a lot to do with it.

Perhaps they could holiday in UK?

Yes it is

If anyone in the vicinity of a 13 year old with Tourette’s who’d be distressed at the mention of a bomb should stay at home.

How could he end up in jail in Cairo when he wasn't going anywhere near Egypt?

It’s also about stopping panic. Panic can create a lot of security issues and I wouldn’t want to be on a flight with people shouting and reacting to a bomb threat. Plus as I have mentioned nothing is perfect and yes you have to take a bomb threat seriously including someone shouting it on a plane.

There's not much point in trying to rationalise it like that.

Just have a think about the number of threads we see on MN from people who are genuinely scared/close to terrified of flying and want advice on how to cope.

You can try explaining how safe flying is and why, but nevertheless probably a fair percentage of the couple of hundred passengers on many shorthaul flights really don't want to be there, and regardless of soothing announcements they really aren't going to cope at all well with someone shouting "bomb"...

..Is it reasonable to expect them to cope with that stress when, as in this case, it could be avoided?

A lot of the decision making around this has to be based on what's best for the majority of those involved.

Please tell me you are not so utterly thick and crass as to suggest that a disabled person can magic away their disability at will?

There are lots of things that cause panic and threat on planes mostly pissed up adults become unruly and abusive. If I heard a child shout ‘bomb’ my initial thought might be panic, my next logical thought would be ‘oh it’s just a child being silly’ and if the airline and parents were proactive in explaining the situation to passengers beforehand there’s even less reason to panic.

No I meant the parents might be calmer and more prepared to find a solution which didn’t involve filming the staff.

But a lot of people might start shouting there is a bomb and trying to get away. Seriously this is a big threat in the air on a plane.

And how could they stay at home?

Are you suggesting the airline contacts every single passenger on board to pre-warn them?

Rubbish. If the airline /airport/armed police thought he was a threat he’d have been arrested not just removed from the airport and flight.

This. It could cause all sorts of chaos. Crush injuries, panic attacks etc etc. People with disabilities deserve reasonable adjustments but allowing that kind of behaviour when you're going to be tens of thousands of feet in the air, flying over ocean etc. That's not a reasonable adjustment. The sunflower lanyard and letter is irrelevant.

Tourette’s or not, shouting ‘bomb’ on a plane is far too sensitive to make people tolerate even idle threats/tics. Many of us remember 9/11, Lockerbie etc, these are not events that can be wiped from your memory. The majority is the priority here.

Tries to distress ?

tell me you don’t understand Tourette’s without telling me you don’t understand Tourette’s

So you actually think the kid was trying to distress 350 other people? That was his intention?

The most terrifying moment of my life was on a plane. Some screamed in terror a few hours into the flight. For a few seconds I was absolutely terrified and instantly thought terrorist hijacking. Turns out her husband had collapsed and she had no idea why - she screamed without thinking because she was terrified he'd had a heart attack or something.

He was fine but it genuinely scared the shit out of me and I'm normally incredibly stoic.

A threat might not be real but it can definitely be felt.

Intention is irrelevant in this case. It's the aftermath of the action that counts. Air travel is hugely heavily regulated for so many reasons.

I’ve seen people restrained by an onboard air marshal ( 2 days after 7/10) and our flight met by armed police.

a child with a Tourette’s diagnosis tic’ing bomb is not in the same category at all and a simple tannoy announcement should have sufficed. If anyone in Britain remains unaware what Tourette’s is after that bafta debacle they need to get out more.

Having a disability does not mean that every behaviour is ok, even if it’s not intentioned.

The fact that people are not legally obliged to prove their disability absolutely does mean that any arsehole could board a flight and start shouting that there’s a bomb on board and then claim they have a disability.

The term is reasonable adjustment, and it’s not reasonable to excuse someone shouting “bomb on an aeroplane full of passengers and to just wave it away. Any more than it would be reasonable to employ someone with Tourette’s whose ticks include calling people cunts and shouting the word fuck randomly in a nursery.

As for people thinking that nobody would shout bomb if they genuinely had one, I presume you don’t remember the IRA then? You’ve never heard of a bomb threat which turned out to be a hoax?

People absolutely do make claims of bombs in order to stir up fear, cause delays etc. The fear to the public aside, the plane could have been delayed while all luggage was offloaded and double checked, a security alert could close down an airport for hours if someone decided to make a bomb threat.

Let’s not pretend that this was just a random swear word which while unpleasant doesn’t have the potential for harm. It’s not.